Strain-rate dependent material properties of selective laser melted AlSi10Mg and AlSi3.5Mg2.5

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the mechanical properties of two selective lasermelted aluminum alloys (AlSi10Mg and AlSi3.5Mg2.5) under high strain-rate uniaxial loading. Accelerated tensile tests were performed under various strain-rate decades (.ε = 4.7 × 10-3 up to 250 s-1) to determine the load-speed-specific changes in the mechanical properties. As a result of the primary laser-based shaping process, the microstructure and characteristics change was entirely comparable to the conventional manufacturing of aluminum parts. Based on an ultrafine microstructure, parts achieve high strength along with a brittle fracture behavior. Modifications for applications requiring high ductility (e. g., the crashloaded structural parts of a car body) can be made through specific heat treatment strategies. The experimental results demonstrate that a significant increase in ductility (factors 4-5) with a concurrent decrease in strength can be obtained compared to the as-built state. In high-speed tests, the tensile strength of both alloys rose strain-rate dependently around 10 %, and the elongation at break increased relatively by ≈ 15 % for AlSi10Mg and ≈ 10 % for AlSi3.5Mg2.5.