Fatigue properties of Ti6Al4V cellular specimens fabricated via SLM: CAD vs real geometry

Fully dense titanium alloy implants have long been used for the replacement and stabilization of damaged bone tissue. Nevertheless, they can cause stress shielding which brings to a loss of bone mass. Additive manufacturing (AM) allows obtaining highly porous cellular structures with a wide range of cell morphologies to tune the mechanical properties to match that of the patient's bone. In this work, the fully reversed fatigue strength of cellular specimens produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was measured. Their structures are determined by cubic cells packed in six different ways and their elastic modulus is roughly 3GPa to match that of trabecular bone. Part of the specimens was left as sintered and part treated by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). The fatigue resistance of such AM parts can be affected by surface morphology, geometrical accuracy as well as internal defects. Micro X-ray computed tomography (CT) was used in this work to compare the geometry of the produced specimens with the CAD model and to carry out residual stress measurements using the Plasma FIB-SEM-DIC micro-hole drilling method.