Abstract
Metal additive manufacturing (AM) allows for the freeform creation of complex parts. However, AM microstructures are highly sensitive to the process parameters used. Resulting microstructures vary significantly from typical metal alloys in grain morphology distributions, defect populations and crystallographic texture. AM microstructures are often anisotropic and possess three-dimensional features. These microstructural features determine the mechanical properties of AM parts. Here, we reproduce three “canonical” AM microstructures from the literature and investigate their mechanical responses. Stochastic volume elements are generated with a kinetic Monte Carlo process simulation. A crystal plasticity-finite element model is then used to simulate plastic deformation of the AM microstructures and a reference equiaxed microstructure. Results demonstrate that AM microstructures possess significant variability in strength and plastic anisotropy compared with conventional equiaxed microstructures.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are increasing in popularity as they enable building of complex three-dimensional parts through layer-bylayer synthesis
We focus on the grain morphology and crystallographic texture of AM materials and their effects on mechanical properties
The microstructure alternates between larger grains with their [0 0 1] direction aligned with the z direction and smaller grains with random orientations. This can be observed in the inverse pole figure (IPF) of Fig. 1b, which shows preferred orientations near the [0 0 1] pole
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are increasing in popularity as they enable building of complex three-dimensional parts through layer-bylayer synthesis. Typical metallic AM parts exhibit non-traditional microstructural features resulting from AM processes. These features include grain shape and size distributions, crystallographic texture, porosity, dendrite-scale solidification structures and compositional variation, all of which can significantly affect mechanical behavior. We focus on the grain morphology and crystallographic texture of AM materials and their effects on mechanical properties. Columnar, fibertextured microstructures (where one crystallographic direction is preferentially aligned with a reference frame direction, as shown in Fig. 1c) can occur with varying texture strengths.[1,2,8]
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