An industrially manufactured high-pressure cold chamber die-casting sp
ecimen was examined metallographically to characterize the solidificat
ion behaviour of the alloy, LM24, during casting. In addition, a serie
s of controlled solidification tests were carried out on LM24 alloy an
d it was shown that the local solidification time, t(f), and secondary
dendrite arm spacing, SDAS, have the following relationship: (SDAS) =
(9.21+/-1.05) (t(f))(0.341+/-0.016). The above-mentioned equation was
then used to estimate the solidification time of the wad, runner and
casting sections of the die cast specimen.