Tensile properties of various 316L cellular structure manufactured by selective laser melting

Abstract

The aim of this study are exhibiting visual observation result of 316L cellular structures and comparing mechanical properties among them which had been manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM). Some pre-defined cellular structures including cubic primitive (C), face center cubic (FCC), body center cubic (BCC) and hexagonal close packed (HCP) were designed with 0.5-1mm strut's diameter then applied to tensile test specimen shapes. These designs were generated to three dimensional object using SLM. Visual observations were performed to investigate these resulted objects. Mechanical properties were measured using tensile test to get their strength and modulus young. The result shows some struts size was not completely uniform. The FCC has the highest strength and modulus young with 105.4 MPa and 14110 MPa respectively. The HCP lattice exhibits the widest area of plasticity. The BCC strength and stiffness are almost similar to the HCP with lower plastic deformation area. The cubic has the lowest strength among them. In conclusion, each lattice structure, successfully fabricated by SLM, had specific tensile behavior.