A comprehensive study of mechanical and acoustic properties of selective laser melting material

In this research work, four groups of selective laser melted specimens were built from AlSi10Mg-0403 powder. Each group represents the direction with respect to the bed in which the specimens are built (X, Y, Z and 45° orientation). The mechanical properties of the specimens are characterized in terms of yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, Young’s modulus and elongation at break. In addition to that, the acoustic emission (AE) during the testing was monitored using wide-band high-accuracy piezoelectric sensors. The AE results were related to the mechanical characteristics of the specimens in terms of the acoustic parameter-based data, the peak amplitude, cumulative energy and count rate. The mechanical results show that the specimens built along the z direction have relatively lower strength and it can be attributed to the borderline porosity formed during the SLM process. The acoustic results can identify the critical points of failure under loading. The AE technique proves to be a powerful tool in characterizing the mechanical property and can unveil the concealed information which cannot be identified directly from the mechanical results.