Multicale study of the fatigue life of AlSi10Mg material produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) method : experimental and computational

Abstract

This study investigates the fatigue life of AlSi10Mg alloy produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) using experimental and multiscale modeling methods. A micromodel developed based on EBSD and SEM data simulates fatigue microcrack nucleation with the Tanaka-Mura model and FEM. The effects of the alloys heterogeneous microstructure, including SiC particles, on fatigue crack initiation are examined. Micropillar tests and high‐resolution SEM analyses study slip system behavior and plastic deformation. Long crack propagation is analyzed using the NASGRO equation, with total cycles till failure calculated for each stress amplitude. The fatigue life results, represented in an S-N$$ S-N $$curve, show good agreement between computational and experimental data. Microscopic and macroscopic features like second phases, grain sizes, orientations, and macropores significantly influence the fatigue life of LPBF materials.