COMPUTATIONAL MODELING FOR IDENTIFYING VOIDS IN ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED AL-SI10-MG

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a quicker and more cost-effective technique to produce complex parts that can perform similar to or better than conventionally manufactured parts. However, due to the dissimilar microstructure compared to conventional parts, there is a lack of understanding in the physical and mechanical response of AM alloys under different loading conditions and strain rates, and thus the suitability of using AM parts is uncertain. Notably, the presence of voids in AM metal alloys is more prevalent. By developing a computational model that can represent plasticity and track fracture initiation at the void sites in AM alloys such as Al-Si10-Mg, the failure response can be predicted. Therefore, the objective of this research is to use in-situ micro-computed tensile testing to identify individual voids or networks of voids that are likely to cause fracture initiation in an AM Al-Si10-Mg alloy.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT