Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut lattice materials by laser powder bed fusion

Hollow-strut metal lattices are an emerging class of cellular metallic materials. However, their mechanical properties at relative densities (rho(RD)) higher than 10% are largely unknown because conventional manufacturing methods are ill-equipped to fabricate them. In this study, face-centered cubic (FCC) and FCC with Z-struts (FCCZ) Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut lattices with rho(RD) = 8-16% were fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM). Both lattice topologies exhibited yield strength (sigma*) and elastic modulus (E*) at the upper empirical limits for solid-strut metal lattices with similar pRD values. Furthermore, the difference in sigma* or E* between hollow-strut FCC and FCCZ lattices is much smaller than that between solid-strut FCC and FCCZ lattices. The deformation behaviours and failure modes of the LPBF-manufactured Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut FCC and FCCZ lattices were investigated by uniaxial compression and finite element modelling (FEM). In addition to the lattice topology, the fine (similar to 20 mu m) prior-beta grains in the Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut thin walls contribute positively to the superior mechanical properties, compared with the coarse grains in Ti-6Al-4V solid-strut lattices. Finally, the manufacturability established in this work provides a reliable pathway for LPBF-AM of Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut lattices. The findings of this work are expected to apply to other hollow-strut lattice topologies.

Automated summary

In this study, hollow-strut metal lattices were successfully fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM). It was found that both face-centered cubic (FCC) and FCC with Z-struts (FCCZ) Ti-6Al-4V lattice topologies exhibited mechanical properties close to solid-strut metal lattices. Moreover, the fine prior-beta grains in the Ti-6Al-4V hollow-strut thin walls contributed positively to the superior mechanical properties.