Symposium 9: Fatigue and Fracture of Additively Manufactured Materials

In this work, we use a large-strain elasto-viscoplastic fast Fourier transform (LS-EVPFFT) code enhanced with a continuum damage mechanics model to predict failure response of a subcontinuum mesoscale tensile specimen in the context of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 2022 Additive Manufacturing Benchmark (AM-Bench) Challenge. In the Challenge, participants were provided with data from X-ray computed tomography and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) for an AM IN625 sample and asked to predict stress and strain response and locations of necking and fracture. To account for uncertainty in the subsurface microstructure, we instantiated 10 semi-synthetic microstructures using a Potts model in a modified version of the open-source software SPPARKS. While all 10 models maintain identical surface grain structure, surface roughness, and internal porosity, their subsurface grain structures vary due to randomness in the microstructure-generation procedure. Results from the blind predictions using the LS-EVPFFT framework are compared to the experimental results. Lessons learned are discussed.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Additive manufacturing (AM) dramatically increases the design freedom for difficult to machine alloys like IN718. For turbine applications for aerospace and energy, additional freedom in component design allows for lightweighting and better cooling efficiency. This study seeks to elucidate and model the effects of porous and crystallographic microstructural elements on the fatigue life and fracture behavior of AM IN718 through X-ray computed tomography (XCT), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) of specimens tested under high temperature high cycle fatigue.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Military aircrafts operate frequently in a highly corrosive environment. Corrosion in aluminum aircraft structures with holes and adhesive-bonded lap joints promotes multi-site cracking, which can lead to failure of major aircraft components. To expedite and facilitate the corrosion repair process, an emerging solid-state process, additive friction stir deposition (i.e. AFSD) is applied for the hole restoration followed by the fatigue performance evaluation. Because of the friction stir induced material flow of the deposited and substrate materials, the resulting microstructure and its associated properties are position-dependent. The weak metallurgical bond at the bottom of the repaired hole coupon can promote a crack initiation under cyclic loading and the total life consists of crack initiation, short crack growth, and long crack propagation. This paper describes the use of a multiphysics modeling approach to characterize the process-driven properties evolution and to evaluate the effects of a kissing bond on the total life of hole restoration coupons.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

The behavior of short fatigue cracks under high temperature conditions is of significant importance for lifetime predictions and defect assessment of components in aircraft and gas turbine applications. The cyclic R(esistance) curve provides a possibility to describe phenomenologically the crack growth behavior below the long crack threshold. Within this paper experimentally determined cyclic R-curves of the nickel based alloy IN718 for varying load ratios (Rσ = -1, 0 and 0.5) at 650 °C are compared to each other. Furthermore, an approach supporting a mechanism-based understanding of the cyclic R-curves, taking plasticity induced crack closure (PICC) into account, is developed. Finite element analysis is used to estimate the amount of PICC in the short crack regime. For a systematic investigation of the impact of different ductility properties on short crack behavior, results from an additively and two conventionally (cast and wrought) manufactured material variants of IN718 are part of the investigations.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

This work presents a flexible experimental setup to study dynamic fragmentation of additively-manufactured metallic materials using two different configurations: (i) rapid axial penetration of thin-walled tubes, and (ii) rapid radial expansion of rings. In the first approach, the experiment consists of a light-gas gun that fires a conical nosed cylindrical projectile that impacts axially on a thin-walled cylindrical tube fabricated by 3D printing. The diameter of the cylindrical part of the projectile is approximately twice greater than the inner diameter of the cylindrical target, which is expanded as the projectile moves forward, eventually breaking into fragments. In the second approach, using a similar technique, a ring is inserted over a high-ductility tube, which expands after penetration by the conical projectile, pushing the metallic ring radially outwards, ultimately breaking into multiple fragments. The experiments have been performed for impact velocities ranging from 180 m/s to 390 m/s. A salient feature of this work is that we have characterized by X-ray tomography the porous microstructure of selected specimens before and after testing. Moreover, two high-speed cameras have been used to film the experiments and thus to obtain time-resolved information on the mechanics of formation and propagation of fractures.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

In this study, a plasticity-induced crack closure model, FASTRAN, was used to predict the fatigue life of Inconel 718, 17-4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel (SS), and Ti-6Al-4V alloys fabricated via additive manufacturing (AM) systems. Results indicated that in the presence of large defects (e.g., lack-of-fusion defects), the total fatigue life of AM specimens is dominated by crack growth. Results indicated that variations in the fatigue lives of specimens in machined and as-build surface conditions can be predicted based on the characteristics of AM process-induced defects and surface profile. Effect of build orientation on fatigue life was also captured based on the size of defects projected on a plane perpendicular to the loading direction. In addition, maximum valley depth of the surface profile can be used as an appropriate parameter for the fatigue-life prediction of AM specimens in their as‐built surface condition.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Non-combustible Mg alloy components fabricated by laser powder bed fusion in as-built conditions have an average ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 320 MPa, a significantly larger value than its casting counterparts, which present an average UTS of 200 MPa. In addition, it was determined that stable crack extension always starts at the outer surface due to the coarsened microstructure regions present in the area. Therefore, this paper will use fracture mechanics to predict the UTS value by determining the size of the coarsened microstructure region and considering it as a surface crack with the √area parameter. Then, by using a fixed fracture toughness value, the UTS will be predicted. Furthermore, a processing parameter known as contour, which is used for remelting the outer surface of the specimen, can also smoothen the microstructure and potentially increase the UTS value. Results showed that the √area of the surface crack responsible for fracture was 730 μm for the no-contour specimen and 630 μm for a contour specimen. Subsequently, using Murakami’s theory, the predicted UTS is 320 MPa and 345 MPa respectively. Finally, tensile testing was performed to confirm the prediction, showing similar results with an average deviation of 2.9%.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

It is difficult to evaluate fracture toughness according to ASTM standards for non-combustible magnesium alloy fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) in as-built conditions. The reason is its microstructure duality between inner and outer surfaces. The microstructure duality can be eliminated by heat treatment. However, heat treatment reduces the strength of the material by around 11%. Therefore, heat treatment was not performed. In addition, the greatest advantage of LPBF is maximized when it can be used immediately without post-processing. Therefore in this study, the as-built condition was targeted. In the case of non-combustible Mg products, the mechanical properties of the inner and outer microstructures have a non-negligible difference. The difference is expected to affect the fracture behavior, so it is important to consider the difference in microstructure in strength evaluation. Therefore, this paper explains why ASTM standards are difficult to apply to non-combustible magnesium products fabricated by LPBF in as-built conditions with their microstructure differences. Furthermore, the alternative methods for measuring the fracture toughness of metals fabricated by the LPBF in as-built conditions with these characteristics are introduced and discussed.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Additive manufactured (AM) alloys are still prone to critical manufacturing flaws, such as gaseous bubble entrapment. These defects can lead to early crack initiation reducing fatigue life and increasing scatter, especially when near surface. This research investigated the effect of femtosecond laser shock peening (FLSP) on the fatigue life of AM AlSi10Mg. Due to the low penetration of the FLSP, fatigue life remained consistent between treated and untreated specimens. Of equal importance though, the scatter was found to be reduced in the FLSP treated samples. From the high resolution DIC results, the average strain per grain in the untreated specimens showed a higher increase of strain from initial loading to final fracture as compared to the FLSP samples. Implementing the use of FLSP onto AM materials could lead to more consistent fatigue life despite the presence of porosity, leading to a path of easier certification and improved confidence in their behavior.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT

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

The elastic-plastic finite element analysis is performed to obtain the stress field around pores and evaluate their resultant effects on fatigue life for L-PBF (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) produced AlSi10Mg alloy. The stress field is calculated for both single and multiple pore models, where stress concentration is evaluated as a function of the pore location and its size. A multi-scale finite element (FE) model is proposed based on the inherent porosity data from Computed Tomography (CT) to predict the overall fatigue life with high (90%) accuracy. The predicted fatigue life (cycles) are calculated using the rainflow counting algorithm in fe-Safe software using the stress-strain data obtained from the proposed FE model developed using the Abaqus software. Using the proposed model, it is possible to generate S-N curves for any loading condition for a given porosity characteristic (porosity density and average pore size).
EXTENDED ABSTRACT