Microstructure evolution due to solid-state thermal cycling during AM of 316LSS

We propose to perform in-situ synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction experiments to study microstructure evolution during Additive Manufacturing (AM) of a 316L Stainless Steel (316LSS). Currently, most experimental efforts of similar kind focus on understanding microstructure formation due to rapid solidification. However, our focus is on understanding the effect of solid-state heating-cooling cycles, or Solid-State Thermal Cycling (SSTC), that occur after solidification and until the end of an AM process on internal strain, texture and dislocation density evolution. The experiments will be performed using a dedicated novel miniature Laser Metal Deposition (mini-LMD) machine built with support from the ERC-StG- 2020 GAMMA (# 946959); LMD is an AM technique. We expect to study lattice strain (peak shift), dislocation density (peak width) and texture (peak intensity) evolution due to SSTC during LMD.