Selective Laser Melting Induced Residual Stress in a Nickel-based Superalloy

Nickel-based superalloy is widely used in aerospace engine components for its excellent high-temperature performance. Because of the difficulty in producing superalloy components with complicated geometries, selective laser melting (SLM) technology has been used. Although SLM has the talent in producing complex and net-shape geometries, thermal induced residual stress can result in micro-cracking, deteriorate mechanical properties and damage structural integrity. This stress could be controlled by SLM parameters. We propose accurate measurement of residual stress with Neutron Diffraction in the alloy of interest produced with different SLM parameters to establish a qualitative relationship between them. Structure optimization as well as improvement of existing models will be approached by improving SLM parameters based on the proposed experiments and computational simulation.