Lifetime assessment of the process-dependent material properties of additive manufactured AlSi10Mg under low-cycle fatigue loading

Systematic low-cycle fatigue (LCF) experiments are carried out on additive manufactured AlSi10Mg specimens for several material conditions with varying layer thickness, heat treatment, building direction and surface quality. The deformation behaviour depends significantly on the heat treatment. It is outlined that the process control and heat treatment can produce fatigue properties comparable with the cast material, whereby an as-built specimen surface leads to a lifetime reduction in all cases. The experiments are accompanied with detailed metallo- and fractographic investigations. For all tested LCF specimens, the defect type and the failure origin defect size are characterized in terms of the SRarea parameter by using scanning electron microscopy. The failure of the specimen is mostly caused by lack of fusion surface or near-surface defects, whereby the defect size is determined by the SLM process parameters, such as building direction, surface quality and layer thickness. On the basis of the experimental data and the observed defects, a mechanism-based, deterministic lifetime model is developed and adapted to the specific damage mechanisms of the additive manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy.