Laser ultrasonic inspection of internal porosity defects in AlSi10Mg additive manufacturing components

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology is recognized as a pivotal direction for future technological and industrial advancement. Nevertheless, inherent to the manufacturing process are defects such as pores, inclusions, lack of fusion, and layering, which pose significant threats to product quality and safety, thereby serving as significant obstacles to the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing technology. Consequently, in recent years, non-destructive testing techniques for additive manufacturing products have gained considerable attention in research.This paper focuses on components manufactured using the Laser Metal Deposit (LMD) process with AlSi10Mg material. Through a combination of finite element simulations and experimental analysis, this study compares and analyzes the propagation of laser ultrasound within AM components. By examining the characteristics of shear wave reflection signals from internal defects in AM components, a defect quantification method based on a laser ultrasonic (LU) inspection system is proposed. The research findings indicate that this method is capable of detecting sub-millimeter-level internal defects within AM components. Extracting the shear wave reflection signals from defects, enables quantitative assessment of the location and depth of internal defects in AM components.

Keywords

• Laser ultrasonic (LU) inspection
• Additive manufacturing (AM)
• NDT inspection
• Finite element (FE) model
• Defect identification