Analysis of Failure Process of Maraging Steel Produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

An investigation of the failure process of maraging steel grade X3NiCoTi18-9-5 produced by the SLM method that is subjected to various three-dimensional stress-states has been carried out. In this paper, deformations and damage evolution are analysed experimentally and numerically. Three microstructures of the SLM steel were obtained after the appropriate heat treatment. Tensile tests of smooth specimens and axisymmetric notched specimens have been performed. Numerical models of the samples with ring notches were made in order to determine the stress state and displacement field in the notch area at the moment of the sample’s breakage as well as to compare the experimentally determined effective strain in the notch after the sample’s breakage with the deformation being calculated on the basis of the numerical solution. As a result of the research, it was found that the type of fracture of samples obtained from X3NiCoTi18-9-5 steel powder by the SLM method depends on the size of the ring notch’s radius. Based on the performed numerical calculations and experimental tests, it was found that, for each of the analysed variants of heat treatment, it was possible to indicate the approximate limit value of triaxiality factor Tf, above which there is a scrap of brittle X3NiCoTi18-9-5 steel produced by the SLM method. This value is determined by the characteristic bending of the function that determines the relationship between triaxiality factor Tf and effective strain eeff.