Compression deformation behavior of Ti–6Al–4V alloy with cellular structures fabricated by electron beam melting

Ti–6Al–4V alloy with two kinds of open cellular structures of stochastic foam and reticulated mesh was fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) using electron beam melting (EBM), and microstructure and mechanical properties of these samples with high porosity in the range of 62%∼92% were investigated. Optical observations found that the cell struts and ligaments consist of primary α′ martensite. These cellular structures have comparable compressive strength (4∼113 MPa) and elastic modulus (0.2∼6.3 GPa) to those of trabecular and cortical bone. The regular mesh structures exhibit higher specific strength than other reported metallic foams under the condition of identical specific stiffness. During the compression, these EBM samples have a brittle response and undergo catastrophic failure after forming crush band at their peak loading. These bands have identical angle of ∼45 ° with compression axis for the regular reticulated meshes and such failure phenomenon was explained by considering the cell structure. Relative strength and density follow a linear relation as described by the well-known Gibson–Ashby model but its exponential factor is ∼2.2, which is relative higher than the idea value of 1.5 derived from the model.

► Open cellular structures with porosities up to 92% were prepared by AM-EBM.
► Their microstructure and hardness were connected with these cell parameters.
► They exhibit a brittle response and fail by forming crush bands in compression.
► Crush bands have identical angle for the meshes but vary randomly for the foams.
► Relative strength and density follow linear relation with an exponential factor ∼2.2.