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Improving the fatigue behaviour of a selectively laser melted aluminium alloy: Influence of heat treatment and surface quality

Aboulkhair, Nesma T.; Maskery, Ian; Tuck, Christopher; Ashcroft, Ian; Everitt, Nicola M.

Authors

Nesma T. Aboulkhair

CHRISTOPHER TUCK CHRISTOPHER.TUCK@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Materials Engineering

IAN ASHCROFT IAN.ASHCROFT@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Mechanics of Solids

Nicola M. Everitt



Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM) is being widely utilised to fabricate intricate structures used in various industries. Widening the range of applications that can benefit from such promising technology requires validating SLM parts in load bearing applications. Recent studies have mainly focussed on static loading, with minor attention to cyclic loading despite its vital importance in many applications. In this work, the fatigue performance of SLM AlSi10Mg was investigated considering the effects of surface quality and heat treatment. Compared to heat treatment, machining the samples played a minor role in improving the fatigue behaviour. This is potentially attractive to industries interested in latticed structures and topology-optimised parts where post-processing machining is not feasible. The characteristically fine microstructure in the as-built samples provided good fatigue crack propagation resistance but none of them survived nominal fatigue life of 3 × 107 cycles within the maximum stress range of 63–220 MPa. A specially-tailored heat treatment increased the material's ductility, significantly improving its fatigue performance. At 94 MPa, the heat-treated samples survived beyond the nominal fatigue life, outperforming the reference cast material. The combined effect of machining and heat treatment yielded parts with far superior fatigue properties, promoting the material for a wider range of applications.

Citation

Aboulkhair, N. T., Maskery, I., Tuck, C., Ashcroft, I., & Everitt, N. M. (2016). Improving the fatigue behaviour of a selectively laser melted aluminium alloy: Influence of heat treatment and surface quality. Materials and Design, 104, 174-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.05.041

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 12, 2016
Online Publication Date May 13, 2016
Publication Date Aug 15, 2016
Deposit Date May 20, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Materials & Design
Print ISSN 0261-3069
Electronic ISSN 0264-1275
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 104
Pages 174-182
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.05.041
Keywords Additive manufacture; selective laser melting; aluminium alloys; microstructure; fatigue; heat treatment
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/805491
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.05.041

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