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To exploit the whole potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM), a sound knowledge about the mechanical and especially cyclic properties of AM materials as well as their dependency on the process parameters is indispensable. In the presented work, the influence of chemical composition of the used powder on the fatigue behavior of Selectively Laser Melted (SLM) and Laser Deposition Welded (LDW) specimens made of austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L was investigated. Therefore, in each manufacturing process two variations of chemical composition of the used powder were utilized. For qualitative characterization of the materials cyclic deformation behavior, load increase tests (LITs) were performed and further used for the physically based lifetime calculation method (PhyBaLLIT), enabling an efficient determination of stress (S)–number of cycles to failure (Nf) curves (S–Nf), which show excellent correlation to additionally performed constant amplitude tests (CATs). Moreover, instrumented cyclic indentation tests (PhyBaLCHT) were utilized to characterize the materials’ defect tolerance in a comparably short time. All material variants exhibit a high influence of microstructural defects on the fatigue properties. Consequently, for the SLM process a higher fatigue lifetime at lower stress amplitudes could be observed for the batch with a higher defect tolerance, resulting from a more pronounced deformation induced austenite–α’-martensite transformation. In correspondence to that, the batch of LDW material with an increased defect tolerance exhibit a higher fatigue strength. However, the differences in defect tolerance between the LDW batches is only slightly influenced by phase transformation and seems to be mainly governed by differences in hardening potential of the austenitic microstructure. Furthermore, a significantly higher fatigue strength could be observed for SLM material in relation to LDW specimens, because of a refined microstructure and smaller microstructural defects of SLM specimens.
The locally occurring mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement significantly influence
the fatigue behavior of a material, which was shown in previous research on two different AISI
300-series austenitic stainless steels with different austenite stabilities. In this preliminary work, an
enhanced fatigue crack growth as well as changes in crack initiation sites and morphology caused
by hydrogen were observed. To further analyze the results obtained in this previous research, in
the present work the local cyclic deformation behavior of the material volume was analyzed by
using cyclic indentation testing. Moreover, these results were correlated to the local dislocation
structures obtained with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in the vicinity of fatigue cracks.
The cyclic indentation tests show a decreased cyclic hardening potential as well as an increased
dislocation mobility for the conditions precharged with hydrogen, which correlates to the TEM
analysis, revealing courser dislocation cells in the vicinity of the fatigue crack tip. Consequently,
the presented results indicate that the hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) mechanism
leads to accelerated crack growth and change in crack morphology for the materials investigated. In
summary, the cyclic indentation tests show a high potential for an analysis of the effects of hydrogen
on the local cyclic deformation behavior.
The 22 wt.% Cr, fully ferritic stainless steel Crofer®22 H has higher thermomechanical
fatigue (TMF)- lifetime compared to advanced ferritic-martensitic P91, which is assumed to be caused
by different damage tolerance, leading to differences in crack propagation and failure mechanisms.
To analyze this, instrumented cyclic indentation tests (CITs) were used because the material’s
cyclic hardening potential—which strongly correlates with damage tolerance, can be determined
by analyzing the deformation behavior in CITs. In the presented work, CITs were performed for
both materials at specimens loaded for different numbers of TMF-cycles. These investigations show
higher damage tolerance for Crofer®22 H and demonstrate changes in damage tolerance during
TMF-loading for both materials, which correlates with the cyclic deformation behavior observed in
TMF-tests. Furthermore, the results obtained at Crofer®22 H indicate an increase of damage tolerance
in the second half of TMF-lifetime, which cannot be observed for P91. Moreover, CITs were performed
at Crofer®22 H in the vicinity of a fatigue crack, enabling to locally analyze the damage tolerance.
These CITs show differences between crack edges and the crack tip. Conclusively, the presented
results demonstrate that CITs can be utilized to analyze TMF-induced changes in damage tolerance.
The fatigue life of metals manufactured via laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) highly
depends on process-induced defects. In this context, not only the size and geometry of the defect, but
also the properties and the microstructure of the surrounding material volume must be considered.
In the presented work, the microstructural changes in the vicinity of a crack-initiating defect in a
fatigue specimen produced via L-PBF and made of AISI 316L were analyzed in detail. Xenon plasma
focused ion beam (Xe-FIB) technique, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron backscatter
diffraction (EBSD) were used to investigate the phase distribution, local misorientations, and grain
structure, including the crystallographic orientations. These analyses revealed a fine grain structure
in the vicinity of the defect, which is arranged in accordance with the melt pool geometry. Besides
pronounced cyclic plastic deformation, a deformation-induced transformation of the initial austenitic
phase into α’-martensite was observed. The plastic deformation as well as the phase transformation
were more pronounced near the border between the defect and the surrounding material volume.
However, the extent of the plastic deformation and the deformation-induced phase transformation
varies locally in this border region. Although a beneficial effect of certain grain orientations on the
phase transformation and plastic deformability was observed, the microstructural changes found
cannot solely be explained by the respective crystallographic orientation. These changes are assumed
to further depend on the inhomogeneous distribution of the multiaxial stresses beneath the defect as
well as the grain morphology
Finishing processes result in changes of near-surface morphology, which strongly influences the fatigue behavior of components. Especially, roller bearings show a high dependency of the lifetime on surface roughness and the residual stress state in the subsurface volume. To analyze the influence of different finishing processes on the near-surface morphology, including the residual stress state, roller bearing rings made of AISI 52100 are finished in this work using hard turning, rough grinding, and fine grinding. In addition, fatigue specimens made of AISI 52100 and finished by cryogenic hard turning are investigated. For each condition, the residual stresses are determined at different distances from the surface, showing pronounced compressive stresses for all conditions. While the ground roller bearing rings show highest compressive residual stresses at the surface, the hard turned bearing ring and the cryogenic hard turned fatigue specimens reveal maximum compressive stresses in the subsurface volume. Moreover, cyclic indentation tests (CITs) are conducted in the different subsurface volumes, showing a higher cyclic plasticity in relation to the respective initial state, which is assumed to be caused by finishing-induced compressive residual stresses. Thus, the presented results indicate a high potential of CITs to efficiently characterize the residual stress state.
As additive manufacturing offers only low surface quality, a subsequent machining of functional and highly loaded areas is required. Thus, a sound knowledge of the interrelation between the additive and subtractive manufacturing process as well as the resulting mechanical properties is indispensable. In this work, specimens were manufactured by using laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) with substantially different sets of process parameters as well as subsequent grinding (G) or milling (M). Despite the substantially different surface topographies, the fatigue tests revealed only a slight influence of the subtractive manufacturing on the fatigue behavior, whereas the different laser-based powder bed fusion process parameters led to pronounced changes in fatigue strength. In contrast, a significant influence of subtractive finishing on the fatigue properties of the defect-free continuously cast (CC) reference specimens was observed. This can be explained by a dominating influence of process-induced defects in laser-based powder bed fusion material, which overruled the influence of surface machining. However, although both laser-based powder bed fusion parameter sets resulted in substantial defects, one set yielded similar fatigue strength compared to continuously cast specimens.