On the delamination and crack formation in a thin wall fabricated using laser solid freeform fabrication process: An experimental–numerical investigation

Parts fabricated using laser solid freeform fabrication (LSFF) are subject to thermal stresses due to the layer-by-layer material deposition and the temperature distribution characteristic throughout the process domain. The thermal stress patterns and intensity contribute significantly to potential delamination and crack formation. In this paper, the temperature distribution and stress field induced during the multilayer LSFF process, and their correlation with delamination and crack formation are studied. This is performed by a numerical and experimental investigation in the fabrication of a thin wall of 304L stainless steel. For time-dependent predictions on the locations of maximum temperatures and thermal stresses and their patterns, a three-dimensional (3D) transient finite element model is employed to simulate the process, including the geometry of the deposited materials as well as coupled temperature and stress distributions across the process domain. The experimental results are used to verify the numerical results as well as to investigate the correlation between the numerical results and micro-crack formations across the fabricated parts. The experiments are conducted with the same process parameters used in the numerical analyses using a 1 kW Nd:YAG pulsed laser. The trend of numerical and experimental results reveals that by preheating the substrate prior to the fabrication process, it is possible to substantially reduce the micro-cracks formed across the part. To demonstrate the feasibility of preheating on the reduction of micro-cracks, several simulations and experiments are performed in which a crack-free result is obtained when the substrate is preheated to 800 K. For this case, 22% reduction in thermal stresses is obtained throughout the process domain.