Abstract:The high-cycle fatigue and fracture behaviours of the selective laser melting (SLM) AlSi10Mg alloy were investigated. Flat specimens were designed directly in the shape required for the fatigue tests under pulsating loading in tension (R=0, R is the dynamic factor). The fatigue-life (S-N) curves were modelled with a conditional Weibull’s probability density function, where the real-valued genetic algorithm (GA) and the differential ant-stigmergy algorithm (DASA) were applied to estimating the needed Weibull’s parameters. The fractography of the fatigue specimens showed that the fatigue cracks initiated around the surface defects produced by SLM and then propagated in an unstable manner. However, the presence of large SLM defects mainly influenced the crack initiation period and did not have a strong influence on the crack propagation. The obtained experimental results present a basis for further investigation of the fatigue behaviour of advanced materials and structures (e.g. cellular metamaterials) fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM). Especially, in the case of two-dimensional cellular structures, the cross-section of cellular struts is usually rectangular which corresponds to the specimen shape considered in this work.

Key words: selective laser melting; AlSi10Mg alloy; high-cycle fatigue; fracture behaviour