Design of Heterogeneous Structured Al Alloys with Wide Processing Window for Laser-Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing

Authors

Saket Thapliyal, University of North Texas
Shivakant Shukla, University of North Texas
Le Zhou, Marquette UniversityFollow
Holden Hyer, University of Central Florida
Priyanshi Agrawal, University of North Texas
Priyanka Agrawal, University of North Texas
Mageshwari Komarasamy, University of North Texas
Yongho Sohn, University of Central Florida
Rajiv S. Mishra, University of North Texas

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2021

Publisher

Elsevier

Source Publication

Additive Manufacturing

Source ISSN

2214-7810

Abstract

Required microstructural attributes of an alloy vary with structural applications. The microstructural fine-tuning capability of laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) enables application specific manufacture of the components. Such manufacture with L-PBF AM requires alloys that exhibit wide processing window and are amenable to multiple deformation mechanisms. However, high hot cracking susceptibility of Al alloys poses a barrier to such printability-performance synergy. In this work we show that an integration of, a) grain refinement through heterogeneous nucleation, and b) eutectic solidification, leads to crack-free parts at wide range of process parameters, microstructural heterogeneity, and hierarchy in the Al-Ni-Ti-Zr alloy. Such an integration targets hot cracking at multiple stages of solidification in L-PBF as opposed to the contemporary alloy design strategies that target hot-cracking at only specific stages of solidification. The Al-Ni-Ti-Zr alloy exhibits excellent printability and a high as-built tensile performance. Due to the wide processing window and amenability to multiple deformation mechanisms, the alloy microstructure and subsequently the performance, can be fine-tuned. Such strategy opens the gateway for application-specific manufacture of Al alloys with L-PBF AM and establishes a fundamental shift in current methodologies for design of these alloys for L-PBF AM.

Comments

Accepted version. Additive Manufacturing, Vol. 42 (2021, June): 102002. DOI. © 2021 Elsevier. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Thapliyal, Saket; Shukla, Shivakant; Zhou, Le; Hyer, Holden; Agrawal, Priyanshi; Agrawal, Priyanka; Komarasamy, Mageshwari; Sohn, Yongho; and Mishra, Rajiv S., "Design of Heterogeneous Structured Al Alloys with Wide Processing Window for Laser-Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing" (2021). Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications. 297.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/mechengin_fac/297