Towards a Methodology for Component Design of Metallic AM Parts Subjected to Cyclic Loading

Abstract

The safe fatigue design of metallic components fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) is still a largely unsolved problem. This is primarily due to (a) a significant inhomogeneity of the material properties across the component; (b) defects such as porosity and lack of fusion as well as pronounced surface roughness of the as-built components; and (c) residual stresses, which are very often present in the as-built parts and need to be removed by post-fabrication treatments. Such morphological and microstructural features are very different than in conventionally manufactured parts and play a much bigger role in determining the fatigue life. The above problems require specific solutions with respect to the identification of the critical (failure) sites in AM fabricated components. Moreover, the generation of representative test specimens characterized by similar temperature cycles needs to be guaranteed if one wants to reproducibly identify the critical sites and establish fatigue assessment methods taking into account the effect of defects on crack initiation and early propagation. The latter requires fracture mechanics-based approaches which, unlike common methodologies, cover the specific characteristics of so-called short fatigue cracks. This paper provides a discussion of all these aspects with special focus on components manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). It shows how to adapt existing solutions, identifies fields where there are still gaps, and discusses proposals for potential improvement of the damage tolerance design of L-PBF components.

Keywords

• fatigue
• fracture
• defects
• L-PBF