A comparison of the tensile, fatigue, and fracture behavior of Ti-6Al-4V and 15-5 PH stainless steel parts made by selective laser melting

In this work, Ti-6Al-4V and 15-5 PH steel samples were fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) and their tensile, fatigue, and fracture properties were analyzed and compared. The tensile properties were compared with respect to the build orientation. The horizontally built samples showed relatively better tensile properties as compared with the vertically built samples. Fatigue performance was studied for the vertical build orientation and compared with standard wrought material data. The tensile and fatigue performance of SLM-built materials were comparable to their respective standard wrought materials. Fractography was carried out for all tensile and fatigue-tested samples. The fatigue fracture behavior of Ti-6Al-4V was different from 15-5 PH steel. For Ti-6Al-4V, the fatigue crack initiation occurred deep in the subsurface whereas for PH steel the fatigue crack was initiated from the surface.