The effect of manufacturing defects on the fatigue life of selective laser melted Ti-6Al-4V structures

The manufacturing defects introduced by selective laser melting typically lead to lower fatigue strength and a larger variation in fatigue life compared to conventionally manufactured structures. X-ray micro computed tomography (μCT) is used to characterize the porosity and lack of fusion defects in terms of population, morphology, dimension and location. The defect size and location are combined with the NASA/FLACGRO (NASGRO) fatigue crack growth model to predict the likely fatigue life, in which an effective initial crack length is defined using the cyclic plastic zone and the defect radius. An eXtended defect zone (XDZ) describing the propensity for local plasticity during fatigue around a defect has been shown through numerical analysis to be a good indicator of the ranking of the threat to fatigue caused by differently located manufacturing defects. This indicates that the effect of a defect, initial radius, r0, is likely to be pronounced when its center is within 2r0 of the surface and maximal when it lies just beneath the surface.