Anisotropic corrosion resistance of TiC reinforced Ni-based composites fabricated by selective laser melting

Abstract

Electrochemical measurements on three planes of TiC/Inconel 718 composites fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) were performed to study the corrosion property. The results showed that the YZ-plane with dense and fine columnar structures possessed high microhardness and superior corrosion resistance in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. For the XZ-plane, a decreased anti-corrosion property was observed owing to its inhomogeneous microstructures. While the XY-plane with large irregular pores and clustered ring-like structures was more susceptible to corrosion compared with the other two planes. Comparative analysis suggested that the anisotropic corrosion behaviors were significantly dependent on the surface defects, microstructure characteristics and added reinforcements.