Influence of processing parameters of selective laser melting on
high-cycle and very-high-cycle fatigue behavior of Ti-6Al-4V
Abstract
Orthogonal experiment design together with the analysis of variance was
used to examine the processing parameters (laser power, scan speed,
layer thickness and hatch spacing) of selective laser melting (SLM) for
superior properties of SLM parts, in which nine groups of specimens of
Ti-6Al-4V were fabricated. The porosity for each group was measured and
the results clarify that the influence sequence of individual parameter
on the porosity is laser power > hatch spacing
> layer thickness > scan speed. Ultrasonic
fatigue tests (20 kHz) were conducted for the SLMed specimens in
high-cycle fatigue (HCF) and very-high-cycle fatigue (VHCF) regimes. The
S-N data show that the fatigue strength is greatly affected by the
porosity: the group with the smallest porosity percentage having the
highest fatigue strength in HCF and VHCF regimes. Moreover, the
observations by scanning electron microscopy revealed that fatigue
cracks initiate at lack-of-fusion defects in the cases of surface and
internal crack initiation.