On the development of pseudo-eutectic AlCoCrFeNi2.1 high entropy alloy using Powder-bed Arc Additive Manufacturing (PAAM) process

A new Powder-bed Arc Additive Manufacturing (PAAM) processing which includes on-line remelting of deposited material has been developed for the manufacturing of high entropy alloys (HEAs) based on an existing AlCoCrFeNi2.1 pseudo-eutectic system. The remelting process is typically applied in the arc melting process to improve the homogeneity of prepared material. We investigated the microstructure and mechanical properties of produced AlCoCrFeNi2.1 HEA after applying a remelting process (1, 3, and 6 times) on each deposited layer. The results show the formation of the pseudo-eutectic microstructure, which consists of relatively large columnar grains of the dominant FCC phase (~90 wt%) and fine dendritic grains of the minor BCC phase (~10 wt%). The applied layer-remelting process shows negligible effects on the phase fractions and their compositions, however, it significantly degraded the tensile strength and ductility of prepared alloys. Particularly, the ductility of the alloy reduced dramatically from about 27% after one time layer-remelting to only about 3% after 3 times layer-remelting. This is rationalised by the significant localisation of thermally induced plasticity caused by repeated remelting of deposited material. We also show that this thermally induced plasticity leads to an increased amount of local misorientation in both constitute phases, which suggests an increased amount of stored dislocations in the microstructure. Despite the potentially strain hardening due to this accumulation of the thermally induced plasticity, the appreciable growth and constrained dendritic morphology of BCC grains that developed after remelting play a prevailing role on the materials strength, which limit the interfacial strengthening of the eutectic microstructure and consequently result in the loss of the tensile strength. The obtained results will assist in the further development and microstructure optimisation of novel HEAs using powder-based additive manufacturing processes.