An assessment of spall failure modes in laser powder bed fusion fabricated stainless steel 316L with low-volume intentional porosity

This paper reports on spall failure and damage modes in Laser Powder Bed Fusion fabricated Stainless Steel 316L (SS316L) with intentional levels of low-volume (1-5 vol. %) porosity and pore sizes of 200, 350, and 500 mu m. The fabricated specimens were subjected to uniaxialstrain plate-impact loading at similar to 4.5 GPa, to initiate incipient spall failure. Analysis of velocimetry profiles measured using multi-probe photon-Doppler velocimetry coupled with post-mortem analysis of soft-recovered samples reveals local suppression of spall failure (termed as spall-dominated) as a function of porosity, as the failure mechanism transitions from spall-centered tensile stress dominated to a pore-centered microstructure-dominated damage mode involving void/crack nucleation and growth at pre-existing pores. The critical porosity level where the suppression of spall failure is first observed, as well as the spall location, is dependent on both the volume fraction and the size of the initially fabricated pores. In samples of 500 mu m pore size, the suppression of spall failure is observed with as little as 1 vol. % porosity, while samples with smaller pores (200 mu m) still experience spall-centered tensile stress dominated failure with higher levels (5 vol. %) of porosity. In the case of pore-centered microstructure-dominated failure, spall damage can occur but the spall plane is shifted toward the rear free surface, or more generally in areas further away from the region with pores. Highly heterogeneous deformation twinning, shear banding, grain rotation, and cracking are observed in the vicinity of pre-existing pores and expected spall failure sites.

Automated summary

This study investigates spall failure and damage modes in Laser Powder Bed Fusion fabricated Stainless Steel 316L (SS316L) with intentional low-volume porosity. The results show that the suppression of spall failure is observed with increasing porosity, transitioning from spall-centered tensile stress dominated failure to a pore-centered microstructure-dominated damage mode involving void/crack nucleation and growth. The critical porosity level and spall location depend on both the volume fraction and the size of the initially fabricated pores. Heterogeneous deformation twinning, shear banding, grain rotation, and cracking are observed around pre-existing pores and expected spall failure sites.