Date of Award

Fall 2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MS Metallurgy

Department

Metallurgical Engineering

Committee Chair

KV Sudhakar

First Advisor

Bruce Madigan

Second Advisor

Alan Meier

Abstract

Additive manufacturing has become a highly researched topic in recent years all over the world. The current research evaluates the merits of additive manufacturing based on the mechanical, microstructural, and fracture properties of additive manufactured AlSi10Mg test specimens. The additive manufactured build plates consisted of tensile and fatigue test specimens. They were printed in the 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° orientations relative to the build platform. Tensile and dynamic fatigue tests were conducted followed by microstructural characterization and fracture analysis. A wrought 6061 T6 aluminum alloy was also tested for comparison. Tensile tests revealed similar ultimate tensile strengths for all aluminum tensile specimens (350-380 MPa). Fatigue strength was greatest for wrought 6061 T6 aluminum (175 MPa). The fatigue behavior was a strong function of build orientation for the additive manufactured specimens. The 0°, 30°, and 60° orientations had fatigue strengths close to 104 MPa while the 90° orientation had a fatigue strength of 125 MPa. All test specimens failed primarily in a ductile manner. The effect of laser power, hatch spacing, and scan speed were also studied using microstructural analysis. Increasing laser power decreased grain size and void size. Increasing scan speed led to the formation of columnar grains. Increasing hatch spacing decreased grain size and the amount of voids present in the microstructure.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

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