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Influence of Metal Casting Temperature and Cations on Phase Transformation of Silica Sand to Cristobalite

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Abstract

Due to its thermodynamic stability, silica sand is traditionally used during the metal casting process in foundries. The sand-casting process involves a wide range of organic and inorganic binders. Due to ease in mold making process and less adverse environmental impact, sodium silicate has emerged as the most popular binder. Sand castings exposed to elevated temperatures lose the binding property and can no longer be used in the foundries. Present work reports the formation of cristobalite, a polymorph of quartz in sodium silicate bonded sand exposed to temperature of 1000 °C. It was believed that sodium silicate is responsible for the conversion of silica sand into cristobalite, leading to the loss of binding property. To avoid cristobalite formation, further, the binder was replaced with sodium aluminate. The mineralogical characterization of such sand also showed the presence of cristobalite under the same experimental conditions. It was suspected that apart from sodium, other cations could also be responsible for cristobalite formation. To support this hypothesis, the sand was mixed with a solution of different cations, namely NaCl, KCl, KOH, CaCl2, Al2(SO4)3 and FeCl3 were calcined at two different temperatures. It was found that the conversion of silica sand to cristobalite takes place at a temperature of 1000 °C in the presence of monovalent cation sodium. In the presence of all other cations, the transformations occur at a temperature of 1250 °C. These conversions were supported using XRD, SEM-EDS and FTIR analyses. Reclamation of such sand is not possible due to its inertness.

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Acknowledgment

The authors like to acknowledge Aqua Alloys Pvt. Ltd. Chandgad, Kolhapur, India, for providing Foundry facilities to carry out the research. The authors would also like to acknowledge USIC and SAIF from Karnatak University Dharwad, Karnataka, India, for providing support with instrumentation. The authors sincerely thank the department of chemistry/CMS, KLE Technological University, for extending the FTIR facility, which is purchased from Grant No.: GRD-540, Vision Group on Science and Technology, Karnataka, India.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, KLE Dr. M. S. Sheshgiri College of Engineering and Technology, Udyambag, Belagavi, Karnataka, 590008, India

    Nayana P. Hoolikantimath, Sanjeevkumar Dodamani & Praveen A. Ghorpade

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Goa College of Engineering Farmagudi, Goa, 403401, India

    K. G. Guptha

  3. Aqua Alloys Pvt. Ltd. Chandgad, Kolhapur, India

    Raghuraj K. Rao

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  1. Nayana P. Hoolikantimath
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  2. Sanjeevkumar Dodamani
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  3. K. G. Guptha
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  4. Raghuraj K. Rao
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  5. Praveen A. Ghorpade
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Contributions

Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation and writing original draft was carried out by Nayana P. Hoolikantimath; Formal analysis and investigation was performed by Sanjeevkumar Dodamani; Methodology, supervision, project administration, and visualization was done by Dr. K. G. Guptha; Conceptualization, validation, supervision, resources, project administration was supported by Dr. Raghuraj K. Rao; Conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing original draft, visualization, supervision and project administration was carried out by Dr. Praveen A. Ghorpade.

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Correspondence to Praveen A. Ghorpade.

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Hoolikantimath, N.P., Dodamani, S., Guptha, K.G. et al. Influence of Metal Casting Temperature and Cations on Phase Transformation of Silica Sand to Cristobalite. Inter Metalcast 17, 2038–2049 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-022-00921-7

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