Mesoscale modelling of short crack initiation in metallic selective laser melting microstructures

Selective Laser Melting (SLM), a type of Additive Manufacturing (AM), is versatile manufacturing method especially for rapid prototyping. One big issue with the method is components material integrity. Various types of defects can be left inside the material after sintering process. These defects often have derogative effect on materials fatigue life time. In this paper different material defect types are identified from Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images. Defected areas are transferred to Finite Element Models (FEM). Simple uniaxial tension test is performed to the models and results are incorporated into low cycle fatigue life time prediction. Residual stresses play also significant role in material endurance. Simple process model in created in order to predict residual stress levels