Abstract
The macroscopic mechanical performance of additive manufactured structures is essential for the design and application of multiscale microlattice structure. Performance is affected by microstructure and geometrical imperfection, which are strongly influenced by the size of the struts in selective laser melting (SLM) lattice structures. In this paper, the effect of size on microstructure, geometrical imperfection, and mechanical properties was systemically studied by conducting experimental tests. A series of AlSi10Mg rod-shaped samples with various diameters were fabricated using SLM. The uniaxial tensile test results show that with the decrease in build diameter, strength and Young’s modulus of strut decreased by 30% more than the stable state. The main reasons for this degradation were investigated through microscopic observation and micro X-ray computed tomography (μ-CT). In contrast with large-sized strut, the inherent porosity (1.87%) and section geometrical deviation (3%) of ponysize strut is greater because of the effect of thermal transform and hydrogen evolution, and the grain size is 0.5 μm. The discrepancy in microstructure, geometrical imperfection, and mechanical properties induced by size effect should be considered for the design and evaluation of SLM-fabricated complex structures.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM), as a developed rapid manufacturing technique, has been widely used to produce complex-shaped or multiscale ultralight metallic structures such as microlattice structures [1,2,3,4,5]
The presence of small pores can be attributed to hydrogen evolution induced porosity, the remnant of shield gas in the melt pool during selective laser melting (SLM), and the pores inside the initial powders transferred to the as-built sample [29,30]
We investigated the influence of size effect on the microstructure, geometrical imperfection, and macroscopic mechanical properties of SLM-prepared AlSi10 Mg lattice strut
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM), as a developed rapid manufacturing technique, has been widely used to produce complex-shaped or multiscale ultralight metallic structures such as microlattice structures [1,2,3,4,5]. Among these AM technologies, selective laser melting (SLM) is popular because of its high level of degree of freedom in manufacturing; SLM enables the layer-by-layer production of metal parts based on computer-aided design (CAD) data [6,7,8]. The microstructure and mechanical properties of built struts clearly depend on the manufacturing process parameters [11] including the build orientation, heating treatments, and scanning speed
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