Experimental Evaluation of Fatigue Behaviors and Tensile Properties of Selective Laser Melted K536 Alloy at Elevated Temperatures

Additive-manufacturing techniques show more and more utilization potentialities in today's aviation industry. In order to ensure safe operation of additive-manufactured parts, it is important to have their mechanical properties well-characterized and assessed. In this study, elevated temperature fatigue behaviours and tensile properties of a selective laser melting (SLM) fabricated K536 alloy are investigated for horizontal and vertical building orientation, respectively. A series of tensile tests at 20 ºC ~700 ºC temperature range and stress-controlled fatigue tests at 400ºC and 600ºC are conducted. Effects of building orientation and temperature on tensile and fatigue behaviours are analysed. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is used to examine the fracture surfaces of fatigue specimens to qualify the failure mechanism and crack initiation sites. K536 parts manufactured via SLM are shown to exhibit anisotropic tensile properties at different testing temperatures. Anisotropy of fatigue properties is not obvious at 400ºC and 600ºC. Cracks are likely to initiate at the surface sliding or subsurface crystallographic plane of fatigue specimens in middle life regime and at subsurface or central zone crystallographic plane in longer life regime. In shorter life regime, cracks are easy to initiate at un-melted zones of fatigue specimens.