In this investigation, porosities in fatigue specimens obtained from practical ADC12 high pressure die castings were detected and reconstructed with high resolution X-ray computed tomography technology. Three dimensional (3D) characterizations of the porosities were analyzed. The high cycle fatigue tests were carried out at five stress amplitudes on seven groups of the specimens with different porosity contents. The Weibull analysis suggested less scatter of the fatigue life at larger stress condition. With the SEM observation on the fatigue fractured surfaces, the porosities initializing the fatigue cracks were identified. A pore-fatigue life prediction equation was deduced with the pore characteristics from the fracture surface and 3D X-ray tomography inspection. With 3D reconstruction of tomography data and FEA method, the simulation of the stress distribution around the actual 3D pores were carried out and analyzed further.KEY WORDS: high pressure die casting; porosity; fatigue; three dimensional tomography; finite element analysis.

285Furthermore, the volume distribution of pores was investigated by statistical analysis, which showed that the three-parameter lognormal can fit the volume distribution better than lognormal.