Microstructural characterisation of thick-walled wire arc additively manufactured stainless steel

Abstract

• Microstructural features of a thick-walled WAAM stainless steel part are investigated. • Microstructure exhibits periodically repeating characteristics across the WAAM part. • Oriented and textured structure with large grains at the overlapping region of adjacent fusion zones. • Significant spatial variations in terms of fusion zone shape, grain structure, texture, and phases. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a class of technologies suitable for producing large parts due to its high material deposition and building rates. Among the many possible materials processed by WAAM, austenitic stainless steels, e.g. 316L, are commonly employed. The structure of WAAM 316L thin parts has been studied extensively before. However, multiwalled or thick WAAM 316L parts remain largely unexplored. Hence, in this study, the microstructure of a thick 316LSi WAAM part is characterised in detail. The microstructure of the part consists of large and highly-oriented columnar grains dominated by epitaxial and competitive growth. The overlapping regions between neighbouring fusion zones contain long grains with a dominant <100> texture, which cross several layers and are aligned with the building direction. The grains' internal microstructure consists of an austenite matrix, ferrite with locally varying dendritic morphologies and dispersed oxide inclusions. The texture spatially varies across the part, and this variation is correlated to the local thermal gradient induced by the building strategy and processing conditions used during the manufacturing of the thick-walled part.