Thermal decomposition characteristics of foundry sand for cast iron in nitrogen atmosphere

Sand casting, currently the most popular approach to the casting production, has wide adaptability and low cost. The thermal decomposition characteristics of foundry sand for cast iron were determined for the first time in this study. Thermogravimetry was monitored by simultaneous thermal analyser to find that there was no obvious oxidation or combustion reaction in the foundry sand; the thermal decomposition degree increased as the heating rate increased. There was an obvious endothermic peak at about 846 K due to the transition of quartz from β to α phase. A novel technique was established to calculate the starting temperature of volatile emission in determining the volatile release parameter of foundry sand for cast iron. Foundry sand does not readily evaporate because its volatile content is only about 2.68 wt% and its main components have high-temperature stability. The thermal decomposition kinetics parameters of foundry sand, namely activation energy and pre-exponential factor, were obtained under kinetics theory. The activation energy of foundry sand for cast iron was small, mainly due to the wide temperature range of thermal decomposition in the foundry sand.