Fracture Toughness and Fatigue Properties of Alsi10mg Alloy Produced by Direct Energy Deposition with Different Crack Plane Orientations

In this work, a mechanical characterization of AlSi10Mg alloy processed by Direct Energy Deposition with Laser Beam of Metals (DED-LB/M) in atmospheric conditions was performed. SE(B) and ESE(T) specimens, for fracture and fatigue tests were printed and machined having the cracks in three different crack plane orientations. Microstructural and fractographic analyses were performed by FE-SEM and LOM, and it was observed that the fracture response is strongly affected by the crack plane orientation and porosity distribution. Moreover, the ESE(T) specimens were analyzed using the EBSD technique and the results shed light on the effect of melt pool boundaries, grain boundaries and crystallographic orientation of grains on the crack path for the different crack plane orientations.