Investigating strategies for the fabrication of composition gradient-based functionally graded materials processed by powder bed fusion
摘要
This study reports the failure analysis of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF)-based multilayer functionally graded materials (FGM) comprising Ti-6Al-4V (Ti-64) (≈ melting temperature (MT) 1650 °C), Ni-625 (≈ MT 1350 °C), and 17-4 precipitate hardened (PH) stainless steel (SS) (≈ MT 1440 °C) of 1.33 mm for each composition. The peak load (PL) of 3900 N (in a three-point bending test) was observed for successfully printed FGM with the bottom layer of 17-4 PH SS (with solid infill, laser power (P) 120 W, scanning speed (V) of 1200 mm/s, linear energy density (LED) 0.1 J/mm, with porosity of 12.42%, and grain size No. 0), a middle layer of Ni-625 (with Weaire–Phelan infill, P 198 W, V 1900 mm/s, LED 0.104211 J/mm, with porosity of 18.07%, and grain size No. -1.5), and a top layer of Ti-6 Al-4V (with solid infill, P 45 W, V 400 mm/s, LED 0.1125 J/mm with porosity of 25.29%, and grain size No. 0). The simulation results indicate that brittle intermetallic phases (such as Fe2Ti and AlTi3) form due to the limited solubility of Fe in Ti, hindering direct bonding between 17-4 PH SS and Ti-64. The optimal LPBF parameters reduce stress accumulation and suppress intermetallic formation, resulting in a stronger Ni-625/Ti-64 interface. Moreover, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Ni-625 lies between that of Ti-64 and 17-4 PH SS, which helps mitigate thermal expansion mismatches during repeated heating and cooling cycles.