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AbstractPowder Bed Fusion with Laser Beam of Metals (PBF-LB/M) has gained more industrial relevance and already demonstrated applications at a small series scale. However, its widespread adoption in various use cases faces challenges due to the absence of interfaces to established Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) that support customers in the predominantly data-driven quality assurance. Current state-of-the-art PBF-LB/M machines utilize communication architectures, such as OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST API). In the context of the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) and the Internet of Things (IoT), the assets, particularly the physical PBF-LB/M machines, already have an integration layer implemented to communicate data such as process states or sensor values. Missing is an MES component acting as a communication and information layer. To address this gap, the proposed Extract Transform Load (ETL) pipeline aims to extract relevant data from the fabrication of each build cycle down to the level of scan vectors and additionally to register process signals. The suggested data schema for archiving each build cycle adheres to all terms defined by ISO/TC 261—Additive Manufacturing (AM). In relation to the measurement frequency, all data are reorganized into entities, such as the AM machine, build cycle, part, layer, and scan vector. These scan vectors are stored in a runtime-independent format, including all metadata, to be valid and traceable. The resulting machine log represents a comprehensive documentation of each build cycle, enabling data-driven quality assurance at process level.
In this contribution, we present a physically motivated heat source model for the numerical modeling of laser beam welding processes. Since the calibration of existing heat source models, such as the conic or Goldak model, is difficult, the representation of the heat source using so-called Lamé curves has been established, relying on prior Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations.
Lamé curves, which describe the melting isotherm, are used in a subsequent finite-element (FE) simulation to define a moving Dirichlet boundary condition, which prescribes a constant temperature in the melt pool. As an alternative to this approach, we developed a physically motivated heat source model, which prescribes the heat input as a body load directly. The new model also relies on prior CFD simulations to identify the melting isotherm. We demonstrate numerical results of the new heat source model on boundary-value problems from the field of laser beam welding and compare it with the prior CFD simulation and the results of the Lamé curve model and experimental data.
For the hydrogen-based energy economy of tomorrow, the construction of the necessary infrastructure will play a central role. Most materials used to date, such as welded steels, can be prone to hydrogen embrittlement under certain conditions. This includes the classic delayed cold cracking during welding as well as degradation phenomena during service of components in hydrogen-containing environment. For the evaluation of any hydrogen effect, for example, on the mechanical properties of a welded metallic material, the hydrogen content must be precisely determined. In the case of weld seams, the carrier gas hot extraction (CGHE) according to ISO 3690 is meanwhile state-of-the-art. CGHE is based on accelerated hydrogen degassing due to the thermal activation of hydrogen at elevated temperatures. In addition to the quantification of hydrogen, thermal desorption analysis (TDA) with varying heating rates can be used to determine and evaluate the hydrogen trapping at microstructural defects in the material. For both techniques, experimental and metrological influences must be considered, which have a major effect on the result. For example, ISO 3690 suggests different sample geometries and minimum extraction times for CGHE. This study summarizes the results and experiences of numerous investigations at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) with different sample temperatures and geometries (ISO 3690 type B and cylindrical TDA samples) regarding the influence of the sample surface (polished/welded), measurement accuracy depending on the sample volume and the insufficient monitoring of the effect of PI control on the extraction temperature. A deviating extraction temperature from the target temperature can significantly falsify the measurement results. Based on the results, methods are shown which allow the desired extraction temperature to be reached quickly without physically interfering with the measuring equipment. This serves to significantly improve the reliability of the hydrogen measurement through increased signal stability and accelerated hydrogen desorption. In general, an independent temperature measurement with dummy samples is recommended for the heating procedure of choice to exclude possible undesired temperature influences before the measurement. The methods described can be transferred directly to industrial applications
Stresses in repair welding of high-strength steels—part 2: heat control and stress optimization
(2024)
In welding of high-strength steels, e.g. for foundations and erection structures of wind energy plants, unacceptable defects can occasionally be found in the weld area, which should be removed by thermal gouging and subsequent re-welding. High shrinkage restraint of repair welds may lead to crack formation and component failure, predominantly in interaction with degraded microstructures and mechanical properties due to repair cycles. This study aims for elaboration of recommendations for repair concepts appropriate to the stresses and materials involved to avoid cold cracking, damage and expensive reworking. In part 1 [1] of this study, systematic investigations of influences of shrinkage restraint on residual stresses and cold cracking risk during repair welding of two high-strength steels S500MLO for offshore application and S960QL for mobile crane structures were focussed. In this part 2, the microstructure, particularly hardness, and residual stresses due to gouging and influences of heat control parameters in repair welding are analysed. A clear reduction in residual stress after gouging can be observed, especially for the specimens with restrained transverse shrinkage. Gouging to a depth of approx. 2/3 of the seam height does not lead to a complete relaxation of the observed reaction forces. Particularly for the higher strength steel S960QL, there are pronounced areas influenced by the gouging process in which a degradation of the microstructure and properties should be assumed. Overall, the repair welds show a significant increase in the width of the weld and HAZ compared to the original weld, especially in the case of S960QL/G89. The repair welds show higher welding-induced stresses than the original welds, especially in the areas of the HAZ and the base metal close to the weld seam. This behaviour can be attributed overall to increased restraint conditions due to the remaining root weld or shorter gouge grooves. In good agreement with earlier investigations, the residual stresses transverse to the weld can be significantly reduced by upwardly limited working or interpass temperatures, and the reaction stresses resulting from high restraint conditions can be effectively counteracted. The influence of the heat input on the stress formation is low compared to the interpass temperature for both test materials.
The presentation gives an overview of BAM's activities on processing influences and application properties of MPEAs in the form of joined and machined high and medium entropy alloys (CoCrFeMnNi and CoCrNi). In the case of welding, the focus is on defect-free welded joints with sufficient mechanical properties. In the case of machining, the focus is on the possible influence on the surface quality of the materials through adequate milling parameters. In addition, the hydrogen absorption and diffusion properties as well as the electrochemical corrosion behavior are fundamentally examined.
This study investigates the room‐ and high‐temperature (650 °C) tensile and low‐cycle‐fatigue behavior of Inconel 718 produced by laser powder bed fusion (PBF‐LB/M) with a four‐step heat treatment and compares the results to the conventional wrought material. The microstructure after heat treatment is characterized on different length scales. Compared to the wrought variant, the elastic and yield properties are comparable at both test temperatures while tensile strength, ductility, and strain hardening capacity are lower. The fatigue life of the PBF‐LB/M variant at room temperature is slightly lower than that of the wrought material, while at 650 °C, it is vice versa. The cyclic stress response for both material variants is characterized by cyclic softening, which is more pronounced at the higher test temperature. High strain amplitudes (≥0.7%) at room temperature and especially a high testing temperature result in the formation of multiple secondary cracks at the transitions of regions comprising predominantly elongated grain morphology and columns of stacked grains with ripple patterns in the PBF‐LB/M material. This observation and pronounced crack branching and deflection indicate that the cracks are controlled by sharp micromechanical gradients and local crystallite clusters.
In this presentation, the results of the determination of the diffraction and single-crystal elastic constants of laser powder bed fused Inconel 718 are presented. The analysis is based on high-energy synchrotron diffraction experiments performed at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron. It is shown that the characteristic microstructure of laser powder bed fused Inconel 718 impacts the elastic anisotropy and therefore the diffraction and single-crystal elastic constants. Finally, the consequences on the diffraction-based residual stress determination of laser powder bed fused Inconel 718 are discussed.
The present Ph.D. thesis provides a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the bulging-cracking relationship in laser beam welding of thick unalloyed steel sheets. It focuses on experimentally proving the existence of the bulging region and on developing a coupled multiphysics mathematical framework to analyze its influence on the three critical factors controlling the susceptibility to solidification cracking, namely the thermal, metallurgical, and mechanical factors.
The research employs a novel experimental setup, utilizing a combination of transparent quartz glass and thick unalloyed steel sheet, enabling real-time visualization of the weld pool geometry and confirming the existence of a distinctive bulging region. To deepen the understanding of these experimental insights, an extensive multiphysics mathematical framework was developed and rigorously verified and validated. This framework introduces an innovative approach using Lamé curves for accurately describing complex three-dimensional weld pool geometries, including the bulging region's characteristics. Through analytical solutions and numerical procedures, it facilitates the computation of solidification parameters, which are crucial for understanding the metallurgical aspects of crack formation. The framework also incorporates a mechanical model to assess and evaluate the local stress distribution within the bulging region.
The findings indicate that an elongated, sharply shaped bulging region significantly increases the susceptibility to solidification cracking. This is attributed to its adverse impact on the distribution and local dwell time of liquid metal residing at grain boundaries during solidification, combined with the localized tensile stresses identified in the bulging region.
In essence, this research contributes to the broader understanding of solidification cracking in laser beam welding of thick unalloyed steel sheets, with a particular focus on the bulging region. The insights and methodologies developed in this thesis are valuable for future research and advancements in the application of the laser beam welding technology for joining high-thickness unalloyed steel components.
The weldability of stainless steels is largely controlled by the chemical composition, and alloys with ferritic or ferritic-austenitic solidification show the highest resistance to hot cracking. As the resulting phase balance also
affects the final properties, it may be beneficial to both foresee and measure the weld metal ferrite content. The WRC ’92 constitution diagram is currently the most accurate prediction tool available, but it does not take the cooling rate into consideration and the precision may be less accurate for stainless steels with high ferrite numbers (FN). This study aims to validate the reliability of the WRC ’92 diagram for weld metals with FN > 50. The chemical composition was altered through gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) of UNS S32205 with ER347 filler wire that had been PVD-coated with either niobium (Nb), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), carbon (C), or silicon (Si). The actual ferrite content was assessed using image analysis, FERITSCOPE® and X-ray diffraction (XRD). While the WRC ’92 diagram predictions were deemed accurate to acceptable for Ni, Si, and Mn, notable deviations were observed for Nb, Cu, and C. The FeriteScope exhibited a consistent trend with image analysis, though the values were higher, and scatter was wider, and the conversion factor is open for discussion. The lowest accuracy and largest spread were obtained using non-contact XRD, rendering it unsuitable for ferrite measurements of welds.
The development of hydrogen technologies entails high safety requirements in distribution and dispensing infrastructure. Therefore, it is necessary to pursue research on material compatibility in hydrogen, especially for critical parts with tribological issues.
The focus of this study is to evaluate the influence of hydrogen on a wider range of commercially available polymer materials. Thereby, the friction and wear behavior of different grades of TPE, POM, PA66, PA12, PPA, PEEK, PPS, PTFE, PAI, PI and PBI were investigated against a rotating steel disk (AISI 304). Filled and unfilled polymers from different suppliers were evaluated at room temperature in air, vacuum and hydrogen gas (H2) as well as in liquid hydrogen at - 253°C (LH2).
The sliding behavior of the polymer materials is discussed by means of surface analyses, whereby special attention is paid to the formation of a transfer film.
According to the results at ambient temperature, the effect of hydrogen environment on the tribological behavior of neat polymers may be related to lack of moisture, but also to saturated hydrocarbons in gaseous hydrogen. In liquid hydrogen, the best tribological performances were achieved with neat PA polymers as well as PPS and PI composites.
Effect of high-pressure hydrogen environment on the physical and mechanical properties of elastomers
(2024)
This study presents the influence of high-pressure hydrogen environment on the physical and mechanical properties of two types of cross-linked hydrogenated acrylonitrile butadiene rubbers. Based on the CSA/ANSI standard, static exposures in hydrogen experiments were performed up to 100 MPa at 120 °C. Characterization before and after exposure was conducted by means of density and hardness measurements, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), tensile tests, compression set, FT-IR and AFM analyses to assess effects after decompression. While the effect of high-pressure exposure is significant immediately after exposure, most of the physical and mechanical properties recover after 48 hours. FT-IR, AFM, SEM and compression set results indicate, however, permanent effects.
A fundamental study of physical mechanisms of wineglass-shaped fusion zone profile in laser melting
(2024)
The fusion zone geometry in laser melting processes e.g., laser welding and laser-based additive manufacturing, of metallic materials has commonly a wineglass-shaped profile which is critical to the grain orientation and stress distribution. Hereby, we adopt for the first time a decoupling work through a combination of multi-physics modelling and experiments to reveal the fundamental mechanisms of this special morphology. Two physicsbased easy-to-use metal vapour models are proposed to consider the vapour’s momentum and thermal effects separately. It is found that the direct laser energy absorption and Marangoni shear stress which are widely hypothesised to dominate the wineglass-shape formation show only a minor influence. The additional heating from the metallic vapour plume rather than its momentum impact contributes predominantly to the enlarging of the molten pool top region, resulting directly in the formation of the wineglass-shaped fusion zone. The generality of the plume heating effect is also validated in two types of materials (steel and Al) in a wide range of parameters.
Despite the advances in hardware and software techniques, standard numerical methods fail in providing real-time simulations, especially for complex processes such as additive manufacturing applications. A real-time simulation enables process control through the combination of process monitoring and automated feedback, which increases the flexibility and quality of a process. Typically, before producing a whole additive manufacturing structure, a simplified experiment in the form of a beadon-plate experiment is performed to get a first insight into the process and to set parameters suitably. In this work, a reduced order model for the transient thermal problem of the bead-on-plate weld simulation is developed, allowing an efficient model calibration and control of the process. The proposed approach applies the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) method, a popular model order reduction technique, to decrease the computational effort of each model evaluation required multiple times in parameter estimation, control, and optimization. The welding torch is modeled by a moving heat source, which leads to difficulties separating space and time, a key ingredient in PGD simulations. A novel approach for separating space and time is applied and extended to 3D problems allowing the derivation of an efficient separated representation of the temperature.
The results are verified against a standard finite element model showing excellent agreement. The reduced order model is also leveraged in a Bayesian model parameter estimation setup, speeding up calibrations and ultimately leading to an optimized real-time simulation approach for welding experiment using synthetic as well as real measurement data.
Multiple principal element alloys encompass the well-known high entropy alloys (HEA). The alloy system represents a new class of materials consisting of at least three alloying elements, each containing 5 to 35 at.%. Thus, this alloying concept differs fundamentally from conventional materials such as steel or nickel alloys. For this purpose, the alloying elements are specifically selected, the microstructures are adjusted in a single-phase and, in some cases, multi-phase manner. In particular, conflicting goals, such as the trade-off between strength and ductility in conventional steels, are overcome. However, in the last 20 years, the focus has been on material synthesis. With the increase in available material quantities, the focus is now on processing issues such as joining and welding processes. The weldability of HEAs has received very little attention so far. The experience with dissimilar metal welds is completely lacking but is essential for the application of these materials in combination with conventional materials. The present study presents comprehensive experimental results on the weldability of an equimolar CoCrFeMnNi-HEA in cold-rolled and heat-treated condition, which was joined by tungsten inert gas welding to an austenitic steel AISI 304. The mechanical properties of the dissimilar metal welds were characterized by cross-weld tensile samples, whereas the local deformation in the weld of the different welding zones was measured by digital image correlation. In accordance with the respective initial HEA condition (cold-rolled vs. heat-treated), the local strain behavior was divergent and influenced the global mechanical properties of both DMW types. Nonetheless, the experiments provided proof in principle of the weldability for dissimilar joints of the CoCrFeMnNi-HEA welded to conventional materials like austenitic stainless steels ensuring a corresponding capability for mechanical loading. This allows further considerations on the application of these innovative materials.
Direct energy deposition additive manufacturing technologies utilizing an electric arc offer a great potential in generating large volume metal components. However, the selection of process parameters that yield the desired near net shape design as well as the requested mechanical component behavior is not a trivial task due to the complex relationship. Exemplarily for additive manufacturing of high-strength precipitation hardening AlMgSi-aluminum alloy this paper shows the application of a newly developed matching solid welding wire doped with TiB as grain refiner. The correlation between process parameters and component quality is examined analyzing the size and distribution of pores as well as the grain morphology. Furthermore, the influences of different post-weld heat treatments are evaluated to meet the reference mechanical properties of the corresponding wrought material. Finally, the digital integration of the entire additive manufacturing chain enables an overall traceability of the relevant process steps which is the basis for a reliable subsequent quality assessment.
AbstractThe sustainable and resource-efficient production of wind energy plants requires the use of modern high-strength fine-grain structural steels. This applies to both foundation and erection structures, like mobile or ship cranes. During the assembly of steel structures, unacceptable defects can occasionally be found in the weld area. In most cases, the economical solution would be local thermal gouging of the affected areas and re-welding. Due to the high shrinkage restraint of the joint groove in the overall structure, the superposition of global and local welding-induced stresses may lead to crack formation and component failure, particularly in interaction with the degradation of the microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength steels during the repair process. However, manufacturers hardly have any information about these issues and there is a lack of recommendations and guidelines to take these safety-relevant aspects into account in adequate repair concepts. The aim of this research is to derive recommendations for repair concepts appropriate to the stresses and materials involved providing a basis for standards and guidelines to avoid cold cracking, damage and expensive reworking especially for high-strength steels. Part 1 of this study involves systematic investigations of influences of shrinkage restraint during repair welding of two high-strength steels S500MLO for offshore application and S960QL for mobile crane structures. The quantification of the shrinkage restraint of repair weld joints was achieved by means of experimental and numerical restraint intensity analysis. In welding experiments with self-restrained slot specimens, restraint intensity and introduction of hydrogen via the welding arc using anti spatter spray were varied systematically to analyse the effect on welding result, residual stresses and cold cracking. It could be shown that increasing restraint intensities result in significantly higher transverse residual stress levels. In the case of hydrogen introduction S500MLO showed no cold cracking independent of the restraint conditions. However, S960QL was found to be considerably cold cracking sensitive if hydrogen is introduced. With increasing restraint intensity length and number of cold cracks increases significantly. Part 2 [1] of this study is focussed on microstructure and residual stresses due to gouging and stress optimization via adequate heat control parameters in repair welding.
In manufacturing, fusion welding processes use a lot of resources, which presents an opportunity to reduce environmental impact. While there is a general understanding of the environmental impact of these processes, it is difficult to quantitatively assess key parameters. This study introduces a welding-specific methodology that uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of fusion welding technologies. Our approach analyses the main parameters that affect the environmental performance of different welding techniques, including traditional methods and additive manufacturing through the Direct Energy Deposition-Arc (DED-Arc) process. We integrate real-time resource usage data to offer an innovative framework for directly deriving environmental impacts. This research contributes to optimising welding processes by providing a precise and quantifiable measure of their ecological impact, facilitating the advancement of sustainable manufacturing practices.
Life cycle assessment of fusion welding processes considering upstream and downstream process steps
(2023)
In manufacturing, fusion welding processes consume significant resources, presenting a significant opportunity for reducing environmental impact. Although there is a qualitative understanding of the environmental implications of these processes, a quantitative assessment of key parameters remains complex. This study introduces a welding-specific methodology that employs life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantitatively evaluate the environmental footprint of fusion welding technologies. Our approach identifies and analyses the principal parameters affecting the environmental performance of various welding techniques, including traditional joint welding and additive manufacturing via the Direct Energy Deposition-Arc (DED-Arc) process. Real-time resource usage data is integrated to offer an innovative framework for directly deriving environmental impacts. This research contributes to optimising welding processes by providing a precise and quantifiable measure of their ecological impact. This facilitates the advancement of sustainable manufacturing practices.
Numerical and experimental assessment of liquid metal embrittlement in externally loaded spot welds
(2024)
Zinc-based surface coatings are widely applied with high-strength steels in automotive industry. Some of these base materials show an increased brittle cracking risk during loading. It is necessary to examine electrogalvanized and uncoated samples of a high strength steel susceptible to liquid metal embrittlement during spot welding with applied external load. Therefore, a newly developed tensile test method with a simultaneously applied spot weld is conducted. A fully coupled 3D electrical, thermal, metallurgical and mechanical finite element model depicting the resistant spot welding process combined with the tensile test conducted is mandatory to correct geometric influences of the sample geometry and provides insights into the sample’s time dependent local loading. With increasing external loads, the morphology of the brittle cracks formed is affected more than the crack depth. The validated finite element model applies newly developed damage indicators to predict and explain the liquid metal embrittlement cracking onset and development as well as even ductile failure.
Abstract
In the post-processing of large maritime components, a considerable amount of waste in the form of milling and grinding chips is produced. At the same time, additive manufacturing technologies have shown great potential in producing high-volume parts for maritime applications, allowing novel design approaches and short lead times. In this context, this study presents a sustainable approach to recycle and use aluminium bronze waste material, generated during post-processing of large cast ship propellers, as feedstock for laser-powder directed energy deposition. The recycling technology used to produce powder batches is inductive re-melting in combination with ultrasonic atomization. The derived metal powders are characterized using digital image analysis, powder flowability tests, scanning electron microscopy as well as energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Compared to conventional metal powders produced by gas atomization, the recycled material shows excellent sphericity and a powder size distribution with a higher content of finer and coarser particles. Metallographic sections of deposited additively produced specimens show an increased hardness and reduced ductility, but also competitive densities and higher yield and ultimate tensile strength compared to cast material. The process chain shows high potential for the maritime sector to enable circular and sustainable manufacturing.
High-strength steels offer potential for weight optimization due to reduced wall thicknesses in modern constructions. Additive manufacturing processes such as Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) enable the resource-efficient production of structures. In the case of defects occurring in weld seams orWAAM components due to unstable process conditions, the economical solution is local gouging or machining and repair welding. It is important to understand the effects of machining steps on the multiaxial stress state in conjunction with the design-related shrinkage restraints. Research into how welding and slot milling of welds andWAAM structures affects residual stresses is still lacking. For this reason, component-related investigations with high-strength steels with yield strengths ≥790 MPa are carried out in our research. In-situ digital image correlation (DIC) and ex-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the stresses and strains induced on specimens during and after milling. The systematic analyses revealed a significant interaction of the stiffness and microstructure of the specimens with the initial residual stresses induced by welding. Subsequent repair welds can result in significantly higher residual stresses.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the efficient production of advanced constructions. New developments in topology optimization are leading to weight-optimized designs of increasing complexity. Direct energy deposition processes (DED) such as wire and arc-based additive manufacturing are an important method of additive manufacturing. The wire filler metals enable a wide range of materials, while the arc process provides a high deposition rate compared to laser and powder-based processes. Combined with the use of high-strength steels, the thickness of walls or components can be significantly reduced in the context of lightweight construction, which results in significant savings in energy, costs, time and resources. Suitable high-strength steel filler metals are commercially available for DED-arc AM processes. However, guidelines and quantitative knowledge about welding stresses and cold cracking issues during component production and service are lacking. This limits the industrial application considerably. In a joint project of BAM and Chemnitz University of Technology, the main influences and complex interactions of material, production process, design and processing steps on the residual stress level are investigated. The aim is to develop processing recommendations and a cold cracking test for economical processing and stress-related design of high-strength steels with DED-arc. This study focuses on residual stress analysis by neutron diffraction (ND) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) on defined test specimens. The ND analysis were performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute- Villigen, Switzerland (PSI) and the XRD analysis at BAM. The study shows a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the residual stress magnitudes and distribution between the component bulk (ND) and surface (XRD) analyses. The ND analysis reveals that in DED-arc AM walls the residual stresses dominate in the direction of welding and are negligibly small in each case transverse to the direction of welding. The topology of the analyzed residual stresses shows almost identical residual stress maps compared to XRD. In addition, the residual stresses are significantly influenced by the solid phase transformation of the material due to low cooling times and less post heat treatment cycles of following AM layers in the area of the top layer.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the efficient production of advanced constructions. New developments in topology optimization are leading to weight-optimized designs of increasing complexity. Direct energy deposition processes (DED) such as wire and arc-based additive manufacturing are an important method of additive manufacturing. The wire filler metals enable a wide range of materials, while the arc process provides a high deposition rate compared to laser and powder-based processes. Combined with the use of high-strength steels, the thickness of walls or components can be significantly reduced in the context of lightweight construction, which results in significant savings in energy, costs, time and resources. Suitable high-strength steel filler metals are commercially available for DED-arc AM processes. However, guidelines and quantitative knowledge about welding stresses and cold cracking issues during component production and service are lacking. This limits the industrial application considerably. In a joint project of BAM and Chemnitz University of Technology, the main influences and complex interactions of material, production process, design and processing steps on the residual stress level are investigated. The aim is to develop processing recommendations and a cold cracking test for economical processing and stress-related design of high-strength steels with DED-arc. This study focuses on residual stress analysis by neutron diffraction (ND) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) on defined test specimens. The ND analysis were performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute- Villigen, Switzerland (PSI) and the XRD analysis at BAM. The study shows a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the residual stress magnitudes and distribution between the component bulk (ND) and surface (XRD) analyses. The ND analysis reveals that in DED-arc AM walls the residual stresses dominate in the direction of welding and are negligibly small in each case transverse to the direction of welding. The topology of the analyzed residual stresses shows almost identical residual stress maps compared to XRD. In addition, the residual stresses are significantly influenced by the solid phase transformation of the material due to low cooling times and less post heat treatment cycles of following AM layers in the area of the top layer.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the efficient production of advanced constructions. New developments in topology optimization are leading to weight-optimized designs of increasing complexity. Direct energy deposition processes (DED) such as wire and arc-based additive manufacturing are an important method of additive manufacturing. The wire filler metals enable a wide range of materials, while the arc process provides a high deposition rate compared to laser and powder-based processes. Combined with the use of high-strength steels, the thickness of walls or components can be significantly reduced in the context of lightweight construction, which results in significant savings in energy, costs, time and resources. Suitable high-strength steel filler metals are commercially available for DED-arc AM processes. However, guidelines and quantitative knowledge about welding stresses and cold cracking issues during component production and service are lacking. This limits the industrial application considerably. In a joint project of BAM and Chemnitz University of Technology, the main influences and complex interactions of material, production process, design and processing steps on the residual stress level are investigated. The aim is to develop processing recommendations and a cold cracking test for economical processing and stress-related design of high-strength steels with DED-arc. This study focuses on residual stress analysis by neutron diffraction (ND) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) on defined test specimens. The ND analysis were performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute- Villigen, Switzerland (PSI) and the XRD analysis at BAM. The study shows a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the residual stress magnitudes and distribution between the component bulk (ND) and surface (XRD) analyses. The ND analysis reveals that in DED-arc AM walls the residual stresses dominate in the direction of welding and are negligibly small in each case transverse to the direction of welding. The topology of the analyzed residual stresses shows almost identical residual stress maps compared to XRD. In addition, the residual stresses are significantly influenced by the solid phase transformation of the material due to low cooling times and less post heat treatment cycles of following AM layers in the area of the top layer.
Wear behavior of innovative niobium carbide cutting tools in ultrasonic-assisted finishing milling
(2023)
The resources of niobium exceed the ones of tungsten by an order of magnitude. With 92%, Brazil is today the main global producer of niobium. Hence, niobium carbides (NbC) are a sustainable and economic alternative to conventionally used cutting materials, especially tungsten carbides (WC). Moreover, NbC can be used in Ni alloy matrix and thus offer significant advantages by substituting WC in Co matrix as cutting materials in terms of health risks and raw material price and supply risk. Based on recent studies which found an increased performance of NbC compared to WC cutting tools in machining higher strength steels, the composition NbC12Ni4Mo4VC was chosen for finish machining of a high-strength steel S960QL in this study. The experiments were carried out on an ultrasonic-assisted 5-axis milling machine using NbC tools specially made to benchmark them with commercially available coated WC cutting inserts. In addition, the influence of a coating system for the NbC inserts is tested and evaluated for its performance in the cutting process. Tool wear and cutting force analyses are implied to identify optimal parameter combinations as well as tool properties for the novel NbC tool. Together with the oscillation of ultrasonic-assisted milling, the loads on the component surface and the tool can be reduced and the wear behavior of the novel NbC tool can be refined. These milling tests are accompanied by standardized wear tests, i.e., pin-on-disc, between the aforementioned material combinations, and the results are correlated with each other. Finally, the behavior when using hard-to-cut materials such as Ni alloys, or innovative materials such as iron aluminide is also being tested, as these are constantly in the focus of machining optimization. With this strategy, comprehensive knowledge is achievable for future efficient application of NbC for milling tools, which have already been researched for decades using WC.
The new multi-element alloying concept of systems with defined entropy (HEA — high-entropy alloy or MEA — medium-entropy alloy) is increasing in material research interest. Improved properties or combinations of properties are shown by several systems. Thus, the resulting microstructures and production of HEA/MEA as well as properties have been primarily investigated so far. Furthermore, processing is a key issue to transfer HEA/MEA systems to real components. Since welding is the most important joining process for metals, it is crucial to investigate the influence of welding to guarantee component integrity. Since most HEA are made of expensive alloying elements such as Co or Ni, they will not be used entirely as structural materials. Thus, it can be advantageous to weld conventional alloys such as austenitic stainless steels with the HEA and MEA to produce components that are both application-oriented and economically viable. Therefore, in this paper, first results of dissimilar metal welding, by tungsten inert gas (TIG) and friction stir welding (FSW), of a CoCrFeMnNi HEA as well as a CoCrNi MEA with a conventional AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel are presented. The focus is on the microstructure formation due to the two welding processes. The results of TIG welding show a dendritic microstructure, whereas in FSW both materials are stirred but still coexist.
Stresses in repair welding of high-strength steels Part 2: Heat Control and Stress Optimization
(2023)
In welding of high-strength steels, e.g., for foundations and erection structures of wind energy plants, unacceptable defects can occasionally be found in the weld area, which should be removed by thermal gouging and subsequent re-welding. High shrinkage restraint of repair welds may lead to crack formation and component failure, particularly in interaction with degraded microstructures and mechanical properties due to repair cycles. This study aims for elaboration of recommendations for repair concepts appropriate to the stresses and materials involved to avoid cold cracking, damage and expensive reworking. In part 1 [1] of this study systematic investigations of influences of shrinkage restraint on residual stresses and cold cracking risk during repair welding of two high-strength steels S500MLO for offshore application and S960QL for mobile crane structures were focussed. In this part 2, the microstructure and residual stresses due to gouging and influences of heat control parameters in repair welding are analysed. A clear reduction in residual stress after gouging can be observed, especially for the specimens with restrained transverse shrinkage. Gouging to a depth of approx. 2/3 of the seam height does not lead to a complete relaxation of the observed reaction forces. Particularly for the higher strength steel S960QL, there are pronounced areas influenced by the gouging process in which a degradation of the microstructure and properties should be assumed. Overall, the repair welds show a significant increase in the width of the weld and HAZ compared to the original weld, especially in the case of S960QL/G89. The repair welds show higher welding-induced stresses than the original welds, especially in the areas of the HAZ and the base metal close to the weld seam. This behaviour can be attributed overall to increased restraint conditions due to the remaining root weld or shorter gouge grooves. In good agreement with earlier investigations, the residual stresses transverse to the weld can be significantly reduced by upwardly limited working or interpass temperatures and the reaction stresses resulting from high restraint conditions can be effectively counteracted. The influence of the heat input on the stress formation is low compared to the interpass temperature for both test materials.
The sustainable and resource-efficient production of wind energy plants requires the use of modern high-strength fine-grain structural steels. This applies to both foundation and erection structures, like mobile or ship cranes. During the assembly of steel structures, unacceptable defects can occasionally be found in the weld area. In most cases, the economical solution would be local thermal gouging of the affected areas and re-welding. Due to the high shrinkage restraint of the joint groove in the overall structure, the superposition of global and local welding-induced stresses may lead to crack formation and component failure, particularly in interaction with the degradation of the microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength steels during the repair process. However, manufacturers hardly have any information about these issues and there is a lack of recommendations and guidelines to take these safety-relevant aspects into account in adequate repair concepts. The aim of this research is to derive recommendations for repair concepts appropriate to the stresses and materials involved providing a basis for standards and guidelines to avoid cold cracking, damage and expensive reworking especially for high-strength steels. Part 1 of this study involves systematic investigations of influences of shrinkage restraint during repair welding of two high-strength steels S500MLO for offshore application and S960QL for mobile crane structures. The quantification of the shrinkage restraint of repair weld joints was achieved by means of experimental and numerical restraint intensity analysis. In welding experiments with self-restrained slot specimens, restraint intensity and introduction of hydrogen via the welding arc using anti spatter spray were varied systematically to analyse the effect on welding result, residual stresses, and cold cracking. It could be shown that increasing restraint intensities result in significantly higher transverse residual stress levels. In the case of hydrogen introduction S500MLO showed no cold cracking independent of the restraint conditions. However, S960QL was found to be considerably cold cracking sensitive if hydrogen is introduced. With increasing restraint intensity length and number of cold cracks increases significantly. Part 2 [1] of this study is focussed on microstructure and residual stresses due to gouging and stress optimization via adequate heat control parameters in repair welding.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the efficient production of advanced constructions. New developments in topology optimization are leading to weight-optimized designs of increasing complexity. Direct energy deposition processes (DED) such as wire and arc-based additive manufacturing are an important method of additive manufacturing. The wire filler metals enable a wide range of materials, while the arc process provides a high deposition rate compared to laser and powder-based processes. Combined with the use of high-strength steels, the thickness of walls or components can be significantly reduced in the context of lightweight construction, which results in significant savings in energy, costs, time and resources. Suitable high-strength steel filler metals are commercially available for DED-arc AM processes. However, guidelines and quantitative knowledge about welding stresses and cold cracking issues during component production and service are lacking. This limits the industrial application considerably. In a joint project of BAM and Chemnitz University of Technology, the main influences and complex interactions of material, production process, design and processing steps on the residual stress level are investigated. The aim is to develop processing recommendations and a cold cracking test for economical processing and stress-related design of high-strength steels with DED-arc. This study focuses on residual stress analysis by neutron diffraction (ND) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) on defined test specimens. The ND analysis were performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute- Villigen, Switzerland (PSI) and the XRD analysis at BAM. The study shows a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the residual stress magnitudes and distribution between the component bulk (ND) and surface (XRD) analyses. The ND analysis reveals that in DED-arc AM walls the residual stresses dominate in the direction of welding and are negligibly small in each case transverse to the direction of welding. The topology of the analyzed residual stresses shows almost identical residual stress maps compared to XRD. In addition, the residual stresses are significantly influenced by the solid phase transformation of the material due to low cooling times and less post heat treatment cycles of following AM layers in the area of the top layer.
Offshore wind turbines continuously increase in size and weight and demand adequate offshore foundations concepts like monopiles, tripods, or jackets. These components are typically constructed using submerged arc welding (SAW) with high-strength thick steel plates like the S420ML. During welding, the occurrence of delayed hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC) must be anticipated. HAC is a critical combination of the local hydrogen concentration within a susceptible microstructure under certain mechanical load, i.e., the occurring (welding) residual stresses. The welding sequence of the thick-walled plates complicates the residual stress distribution due to the necessary repeated thermal cycling, i.e., welding seam/layer deposition to fill the joint. For that purpose, SAW with two-wire-technique was used to weld a specially designed and prototype-like mock-up of a real component with a thickness of 50 mm, filled with over 20 passes and a seam length of 1000 mm. Additional welded stiffeners simulated the effect of a high restraint, to achieve critical HAC conditions. The necessity of a minimum waiting time (MWT) before the NDT can be conducted (to exclude HAC) was critically verified by the application of ultrasonic testing of the welded joint at different time-steps of the NDT of up to 48 h after the completion welding. The residual stresses were determined by a robot XRD goniometer. Tensile residual stresses up to the yield limit are found both in the weld metal and in the heat-affected zone. Numerical modeling allowed the qualitative estimation of the hydrogen diffusion in the weld. No noticeable HAC occurrence was identified and confirms the high cracking resistance of the investigated material. Finally, the applicability of the MWT concept should be critically discussed.
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are becoming increasingly important, not only for the manufacture of parts, but also as repair technology that complement existing production technologies. Powder bed fusion of metals by laser beam (PBF-LB/M) combines the freedom in design with high achievable accuracy, making it ideal as a repair approach. However, there are still challenges in adapting process for repair applications. When mounting parts inside PBF-LB/M machines, their real position within the build volume is unknown. One goal of a repair process is to minimize the offset between the base component and the additively manufactured structure to reduce additional rework. For a minimum offset between component and additively manufactured structure, the actual position of the component has to be identified with high precision within the machine coordinate system (MCS). In this work a process setup is presented that allows the actual position of a gas turbine blade to be detected inside a PBF-LB/M machine. A high resolution camera with 65 megapixel is used for this purpose. The presented setup is implemented on a SLM 280 HL PBF-LB/M machine. In addition to the setup, a novel repair workflow using PBF-LB/M is presented. The developed setup and workflow consider inaccuracies in the component and camera mounting, as well as process inaccuracies. This includes keystone distortion correction by homography. The machine setup and workflow are used to repair a real gas turbine blade. Subsequently the offset between the turbine blade and the additivley manufactured structure is validated by 3D scanning the repaired part. The maximum offset is 160 µm. The presented approach can be extended to other geometries and PBF-LB/M machine manufacturers. The high-resolution camera approach is platform independent, which facilates the market penetration of PBF-LB/M repair processes.
Residual stresses Analysis in Additively Manufactured alloys using neutron diffraction (L-PBF)
(2023)
An overview of recent progress at BAM of residual stress analysis in additively manufactured, in particular Laser Powder Bed Fusion of metallics materials, using neutron diffraction will be presented. This will cover important topics of the stress-free reference, the diffraction elastic moduli and principal stress determination.
The main solidification parameters, namely the crystal axis, the growth rate, and the cross-sectional area of the columnar crystal control the primary microstructure and thus the final weld seam properties.
Limited understanding of solidification parameters due to complexities in experimental and theoretical weld pool boundary determination and
its mathematical description.
Application of local Lamé curves for efficient weld pool boundary reconstruction Derivation of general analytical solutions for the main solidification parameters of a two-dimensional columnar crystal growth during laser beam welding of thin steel sheets.
The Lamé curves approximation technique was successfully applied for the reconstruction of the rear part of the two-dimensional steady-state weld pool boundary. General analytical expressions for the main solidification parameters, namely the crystal axis, the growth rate and the cross-sectional area of the crystal were derived.
The derived expressions and herewith obtained results were verified and validated by comparing them to known theoretical solutions and experimental measurements. Dimensionless analysis of the influence of the size and shape of the rear weld pool boundary on the solidification parameters was provided.
The derived general solutions and the analysis provided allow for critical welding parameters to be estimated and adapted accordingly to improve the welding process.
Reducing CO2 emissions to 62 percent up to 2030 and achieving greenhouse neutrality up to 2050 are the key goals of the EU's climate protection legislation. The expansion of technologies for climate-neutral energy generation is not the only important contribution to reducing greenhouse gases, the efficient use of material systems is also a key factor. In the area of plant engineering, steel components are provided with a wear-protection coating for efficient use to protect them against corrosive, tribological, thermal and mechanical stresses. The wear-protection coatings are primarily made of Co alloys, which are to be replaced by alternative materials, such as nickel alloys, because of the poor working conditions regarding the extraction of the cobalt and because of the health risks. In terms of corrosion behavior, many applications require a crack-free wear protection layer and additional machining. Machining by milling is not economical for wear materials, especially for SME because of the high tool wear, but it is essential to produce defined surfaces with high quality.
Alloy modifications of the filler metals for nickel-based plasma deposition welded wear protection coatings and the use of innovative ultrasonic-assisted milling processes are examined to determine how more favorable machinability can be achieved without reducing the wear protection potential. The focus is on the NiCrSiFeB alloy, which is intended to replace CoCr alloys in the area of screw machines. The modification of hard facing layers in terms of microstructure and precipitation morphology as well as suitability for machining is investigated and compared with the CoCr alloy. In this aspect, the alloy modifications are generated by a PTA process by systematically adjusting the preheating and interpass temperatures, a crack-free wear-resistant layer can be generated, which is subsequently machined by a milling process. In addition to the crack-free properties,
the microstructure, the bonding as well as the mixing between the NiCrFeB alloy and a 1.8550 as well as between the CoCr alloy and a 1.4828 are analyzed and compared in the joining areas. In addition, heating and cooling rates are determined and a chemical analysis of the weld metals is performed. This study provides important knowledge about the differences between NiCrFeB alloy and CoCr alloys in terms of microstructure morphology, bonding and mixing behavior in the joining zones to the basic material.
Alloy Modification and ultrasonic assisted milling of wear resistant alloys with defined surfaces
(2023)
The targets for reducing CO2 emissions are closely linked to the development of highly efficient and economical steel components in plant, process and power plant technology, which require wear protection coatings tailored to the application and steel material for high combined corrosive, tribological, thermal and mechanical stresses. There is a growing demand in industry for defined functional surfaces of high quality for these coatings. Milling is a standard process for finish machining. The desired properties of wear resistant alloys imply significant challenges for the milling process due to high tool wear and surface defects. Besides the hardness of the coating materials, especially due to the precipitations, inhomogeneous, anisotropic weld structures of the claddings lead to further deteriorations of milling processes due to unstable milling conditions and process forces.
A joint project of BAM and ISAF of TU Clausthal (Fosta P1550/IGF 21959 N) investigates the optimization of these challenging machining conditions by means of alloy modifications of the welding powder for plasma transferred arc cladding, without reducing the wear protection potential and using ultrasonic assisted milling process.
In this paper, the influence of the microstructure and precipitation morphology adjusted by means of alloy modification on machining for a NiCrMoSiFeB alloy (trade name: Colmonoy 56 PTA) is investigated. Through metallurgical investigations and in-situ measurement of cutting forces and temperatures at the cutting edge during the milling process as well as the subsequent investigation of tool wear and surface integrity, a detailed analysis and correlation between microstructural properties and machinability is feasible. The findings allow recommendations for standards and processing guidelines, enabling safe and economical production of highly stressed steel components with non-critical, cost-reduced materials.
Alloy Modification and ultrasonic assisted milling of wear resistant alloys with defined surfaces
(2023)
The targets for reducing CO2 emissions are closely linked to the development of highly efficient and economical steel components in plant, process and power plant technology, which require wear protection coatings tailored to the application and steel material for high combined corrosive, tribological, thermal and mechanical stresses. There is a growing demand in industry for defined functional surfaces of high quality for these coatings. Milling is a standard process for finish machining. The desired properties of wear resistant alloys imply significant challenges for the milling process due to high tool wear and surface defects. Besides the hardness of the coating materials, especially due to the precipitations, inhomogeneous, anisotropic weld structures of the claddings lead to further deteriorations of milling processes due to unstable milling conditions and process forces.
A joint project of BAM and ISAF of TU Clausthal (Fosta P1550/IGF 21959 N) investigates the optimization of these challenging machining conditions by means of alloy modifications of the welding powder for plasma transferred arc cladding, without reducing the wear protection potential and using ultrasonic assisted milling process.
In this paper, the influence of the microstructure and precipitation morphology adjusted by means of alloy modification on machining for a NiCrMoSiFeB alloy (trade name: Colmonoy 56 PTA) is investigated. Through metallurgical investigations and in-situ measurement of cutting forces and temperatures at the cutting edge during the milling process as well as the subsequent investigation of tool wear and surface integrity, a detailed analysis and correlation between microstructural properties and machinability is feasible. The findings allow recommendations for standards and processing guidelines, enabling safe and economical production of highly stressed steel components with non-critical, cost-reduced materials.
Steelmaking slag is a by-product of steel production, of which 4.5 Mt were produced in 2020 in Germany alone. It is mainly used in road construction, earthwork and hydraulic engineering. A smaller part is returned to the metallurgical cycle, used as fertiliser or landfilled.
With this use, iron oxides still contained in steelmaking slag are lost. In addition, the possibility of producing higher-grade products from steelmaking slag is foregone. In recent decades, many researchers have investigated the production of Portland cement clinker and crude iron from basic oxygen furnace slags (BOFS) via a reductive treatment. Carbothermal treatment of liquid BOFS causes a reduction of iron oxides to metallic iron, which separates from the mineral phase due to its higher density. Simultaneously, the chemical composition of the reduced slag is adapted to that of Portland cement clinker.
In this study, German BOFS was reduced in a small-scale electric arc furnace using petrol coke as a reducing agent. The resulting low-iron mineral product has a similar chemical composition to Portland cement clinker and was rich in the tricalcium silicate solid solution alite (Ca3SiO5). Based on its chemical and mineralogical composition, similar to that of Portland cement clinker, the reduced BOFS has the potential to react comparably. In our study, the reduced BOFS produced less hydration heat than OPC, and its hydraulic reaction was delayed. However, adding gypsum has shown to accelerate the hydration rate of the reduced BOFS compared to that known from the calcium silicates of Portland cement clinker.
Further research to improve the hydraulic properties of the reduced slag is essential. If successful, producing a hydraulic binder and crude iron from BOFS has economic and ecological benefits for both the cement and steel industries.
The process-structure-property-performance relationship is a fundamental paradigm in metal additive manufacturing (AM). The knowledge of how process parameters and post-process treatments influence the material properties and therefore the structural integrity of additively manufactured metallic components is of paramount importance. With respect to this, one of the unsolved problems related to the unique AM process is the reliability of witness samples for part qualification. Focusing on the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M) process, the microstructure and therefore the mechanical performance of test coupons are not representative of parts of the same material in every case. This work summarizes part of the results of an ongoing cooperation between BAM and BASF, which aims at addressing this issue by designing dedicated specimens, representative of the fatigue properties of the real component. The considered case study consisted in the fabrication and characterization of the fatigue properties of a pressure vessel made of AISI 316L. The first phase of the project was devoted to the process monitoring to understand the relationship between process parameters and temperature distribution during the fabrication of the component. Finite element models were tuned on the experimental data from the process monitoring and simulations of the temperature field in the component were conducted. The numerical results were in good agreement with the temperature profiles measured during the fabrication of the component. The second phase dealt with the evaluation of the fatigue and fatigue crack propagation properties on specimens extracted from different regions of the pressure vessel. The experimental investigations showed significant differences in hoop and longitudinal direction. A clear dependence of the fatigue properties on heat accumulation (temperature distribution) and defect size was pointed out. The third phase encompassed the fabrication and testing of the representative specimens. Numerical simulations were used to design specimens displaying the same temperature profile as in the most critical region of the component. The fatigue testing of the representative specimens is subject of ongoing work.
Alloy modification and ultrasonic assisted milling of wear resistant alloys with defined surfaces
(2023)
The targets for reducing CO2 emissions are closely linked to the development of highly efficient and economical steel components in plant, process and power plant technology, which require wear protection coatings tailored to the application and steel material for high combined corrosive, tribological, thermal and mechanical stresses. In addition to increasing demands to replace conventional cobalt alloys with nickel alloys as a result of price and supply risks, there is a growing demand in industry for defined functional surfaces of high quality for these coatings. Milling is a standard process for finish machining. The desired properties of wear resistant alloys imply significant challenges for the milling process due to high tool wear and surface defects. Besides the hardness of the coating materials, especially due to the precipitations, inhomogeneous, anisotropic weld structures of the claddings lead to further deteriorations of milling processes due to unstable milling conditions and process forces.
A joint project of BAM and ISAF of TU Clausthal (Fosta P1550/IGF 21959 N) investigates the optimization of these challenging machining conditions by means of alloy modifications of the welding powder for plasma transferred arc cladding, without reducing the wear protection potential and using ultrasonic assisted milling process.
In this paper, the influence of the microstructure and precipitation morphology adjusted by means of alloy modification on machining is investigated. The alloy used is a NiCrMoSiFeB alloy (trade name: Colmonoy 56 PTA). Through metallurgical investigations and in-situ measurement of cutting forces and temperatures at the cutting edge during the milling process as well as the subsequent investigation of tool wear and surface integrity, a detailed analysis and correlation between microstructural properties and machinability is feasible. The findings allow recommendations for standards and processing guidelines, enabling safe and economical production of highly stressed steel components with non-critical, cost-reduced materials.
The long-term global goals of achieving almost net zero carbon emissions in the next decades are closely linked to the development of highly efficient components in plant, process and energy engineering, and their sustainable and resource-saving production. Plant components must increasingly withstand tribological loads in addition to high thermal, mechanical, and corrosive stresses. Such combined stresses demand high-performance alloys economically tailored to the application for wear protection and components produced as semi-finished products, via additive manufacturing (AM) or claddings via deposition welding. For instance, the protection of special components made of less cost-intensive materials, e.g., steel in process engineering for screw machines or exhaust gas separation, is feasible applying cost-intensive Ni- or Co-based hard-phase claddings.
Today an increasing number of above-mentioned applications demand precise finishing machining of components to ensure defined compact surfaces with a high integrity and complex contours. Contour milling is standard process for finishing machining of metals. Especially, the desired properties of wear resistant materials (e.g., high strength, hard precipitations) imply significant challenges for milling processes and tools, leading frequently to uneconomic milling conditions due to intolerable high tool wear and surface defects. Inhomogeneous, anisotropic weld structures due to cladding or AM of wear resistance alloys lead to further deteriorations of milling processes due to unstable milling conditions and process forces during chip removal.
To tackle these challenges, already several approaches exist, (1) to enhance machinability of the claddings by alloy modifications to specifically influence solidification and hard phases morphology (precipitation shape, size, distribution) and (2) to achieve significant improvements of the machining situation (e.g., increase of tool life and surfaces integrity) by means of modern hybrid machining processes such as ultrasonic-assisted milling. This contribution shows a comprehensive overview of recent results with these promising approaches for additively welded Ni- CoCr-alloys.
The laser hybrid welding process offers many advantages such as the high penetration depth and high welding speed, and it is characterized by its low heat input compared to the arc-based welding processes, which makes the laser hybrid welding process as a suitable alternative process when welding thick-walled steels. However, there are some challenges when using laser hybrid welding process for thick steels. Due to the uneven cooling conditions and the inhomogeneous filler wire mixing, a typical laser hybrid weld can be divided into two different zones over the depth: the arc-dominated zone on the upper part and the laser-dominated zone in the root part. This leads to different mechanical properties in a laser hybrid welded joint. Due to the high cooling rates and the lack of filler wire in the laser-dominated zone, this area is more critical regarding the mechanical properties, especially the Charpy impact toughness. A low heat input can lead to undesired microstructure consisting of martensite, hardening and deteriorated impact toughness due to the high cooling rate, where higher heat inputs can lead to grain-coarsening and even loss of impact strength. This study deals with the influence of the welding speed and resulting heat input on the cooling rates, the microstructure and the mechanical properties of single-pass laser hybrid welded steels of S355J2 with thickness up to 30 mm. The experiments were performed with a 20-kW fibre laser system and a contactless electromagnetic weld backing on up to 30 mm thick steels in butt-joint configuration in 1G welding position. The cooling time was measured in three different locations near to fusion lines corresponding to different heights of the seam using a special configuration with pyrometers, collimators, and optical fibres. The test specimens for the Charpy impact testing and tensile testing were extracted in up to three different depths. Based on the experiments, a heat input of 1.3 kJ/mm - 1.6 kJ/mm, 2 kJ/mm - 2.4 kJ/mm and 3.7 kJ/mm were recommended when single-pass laser hybrid welding of 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm thick structural steels in regard to the minimum requirements of the mechanical properties, respectively. The optical measurement of the cooling times in different depths could be carried out reproducibly.
The Kitagawa-Takahashi (KT) diagram is a well-established tool in the fatigue community for the prediction of the fatigue limit of metallic materials in presence of defects. Nevertheless, its determination is associated with a large number of fatigue tests carried out on specimens with artificial defects (notches) to describe the fatigue limit-defect size relationship in the short crack regime. The preparation of the specimens and the execution of the tests is time expensive. Therefore, few phenomenological models have been introduced in the past to provide a first approximation of the KT diagram based solely on the fatigue limit for smooth specimen and the fatigue crack propagation threshold for long cracks. Despite the use of such models is widely spread, these suffer from problems related to the uncertainties of the material parameters. Furthermore, the mechanics of short cracks, which is the physical mechanism behind the concept of the fatigue limit, is not considered. This work discusses the advantages and drawbacks of using short fatigue crack propagation models for predicting the fatigue limit of flawed metallic materials. The KT diagrams for a EA4T railway axle steel in as-received and full-hardened condition are approximated by means of the cyclic R-curve method.
Structural alloys are largely employed in key industrial sectors and their demand is predicted to rise rapidly for the next decades. Most of these materials require a large amount of energy for extraction and manufacturing, which causes the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Therefore, strategies for improving the sustainability of structural metallic alloys are urgently needed.
Additive Manufacturing (AM), in particular Laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M), aims to be a sustainable manufacturing process, as it allows the build-up of complex geometry in near net-shape from 3D models, while minimizing material waste and the energy required for the process and post-process treatments.
Nevertheless, the application of additively manufactured parts in structural safety-relevant applications is still hindered by the poor fatigue performance. The cause of this has been mainly attributed to the presence of manufacturing defects and surface roughness. Therefore, a huge effort has been made to optimize the process parameters and to introduce post-process treatments to minimize the defect content. However, material flaws cannot be fully eliminated, but these can be considered in a damage tolerance framework for the prediction of the fatigue performance of additively manufactured metallic materials, which is essential for part design and qualification.
This work aims at presenting different modelling strategies for the prediction of the fatigue limit of AM metals. Simple empirical models and more complex models based on fatigue short crack propagation are proposed. The investigated material is an AlSi10Mg alloy fabricated by PBF-LB/M and subjected to two different low-temperature heat-treatments (265°C for 1 h and 300°C for 2h). The results show that the models can provide good approximation of the fatigue limits and help in the interpretation of the scatter of fatigue data.
The effect of the oscillating metal vapor plume on the keyhole and molten pool behavior during the laser beam welding of AlMg3 aluminum alloys is investigated by the experimental and numerical method. The real-time height of the metal vapor plume is measured by high-speed camera observation. The obtained experimental results are used to evaluate the additional heating source and laser beam attenuation caused by the scattering and absorption based on the Beer-Lambert theory. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior of the metal vapor plume is incorporated into a 3D transient heat transfer and fluid flow model, coupled with the ray tracing method, for the laser beam welding of the AlMg3 alloy. It is found that the additional heating resulting from the scattered and absorbed laser beam energy by the metal vapor plume significantly expands the shape of the molten pool on the top region. Moreover, the oscillating metal vapor plume caused the fluctuation of the molten pool shape. The probability of keyhole collapse at the bottom increases significantly to 72% due to the oscillating laser power induced by the laser beam attenuation. The internal interplay between the metal vapor plume, molten pool shape, and the keyhole collapse are obtained. The developed model has been validated by the experiments, which shows a good agreement.
Fracture mechanics-based methods can be applied to the fatigue assessment of mechanical components containing defects or cracks subjected to cyclic loading. The knowledge of the crack growth behavior for short and long cracks enables the determination of both finite and infinite life regimes. Nevertheless, a first problem arises from the empirical determination of the fatigue data, which vary according to the test conditions, e.g., the test method, frequency and the stress ratio R. This is due to crack closure and further environmental phenomena affecting crack propagation behavior. A second issue regards the lack of standard experimental procedures for the determination of the fatigue crack propagation threshold ΔKth dependency on the crack size. This is problematic, since ΔKth increases with the build-up of the closure effects in the short crack regime and its inaccurate experimental determination leads to large deviations in the assessment and, even more critical, to non-conservative predictions. Aiming at providing more reliable and safer assessment procedures, the present work proposes a method based on effective crack growth data obtained at high stress ratios (R ≈ 0.8). A short-crack model based on the cyclic R-curve and CPLR data is employed for describing the development of the closure effects. The predictions are compared to established methods and validated by experimental tests.
State-of-the-art laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) machines allow pre-heating of the substrate plate to reduce stress and improve part quality. However, two major issues have been shown in the past: First, with increasing build height the apparent pre-heat temperature at the surface can deviate drastically from the nominal pre-heat temperature in the substrate plate. Second, even within a single layer the local surface pre-heat temperature can show large gradients due to thermal bottlenecks in the part geometry underneath the top surface. Both lead to unwanted changes in microstructure or defects in the final parts. In this study, a first attempt is taken to show the feasibility of pre-heating the top surface with the onboard laser beam to overcome the mentioned issues. A single layer of a group of three parts built from IN718 to a height of 33.5 mm is pre-heated in a commercially available PBF-LB/M machine to an average steady state surface temperature of 200 °C using the onboard laser beam. The parts are continuously heated, omitting powder deposition and melting step. Temperatures are measured by thermocouples underneath the surface. The experiments are supported by a thermal finite element (FE) model that predicts the temperature field in the parts. When heating the parts uniformly with the laser beam, differences in surface temperatures as large as 170 K are observed. To overcome this inhomogeneity, the heat flux supplied by the laser beam is modulated. An optimized, spatial heat flow distribution is provided by the thermal FE model and translated into a scan pattern that reproduces the optimized heat distribution on the PBF-LB/M machine by locally modulating hatch distance and scan velocity. This successfully reduces the differences in surface temperature to 20 K. Thermographic imaging shows that a homogeneous surface temperature can be achieved despite the localized heat input by the beam. The potential for industrial application of the optimized laser-heating technique is discussed.
Through experimental observation and auxiliary numerical simulation, this investigation studies the different types of grain refinement of 5754 aluminum alloy laser beam welding by applying a transverse oscillating magnetic field. Scanning electron microscope results have proved that the application of a magnetic field can reduce the average crystal branch width and increase its number. The interaction between the induced eddy current generated by the Seebeck effect and the applied external magnetic field produces a Lorentz force, which is important for the increase of the number of crystal branches. Based on the theory of dendrite fragmentation and the magnetic field-induced branches increment, the grain size reduction caused by the magnetic field is studied. Furthermore, the effects of the magnetic field are analyzed by combining a phase field method model and simulations of nucleation and grain growth. The grain distribution and average grain size after welding verifies the reliability of the model. In addition, the introduction of a magnetic field can increase the number of periodic three-dimensional solidification patterns. In the intersection of two periods of solidification patterns, the metal can be re-melted and then re-solidified, which prevents the grains that have been solidified and formed previously from further growth and generates some small cellular grains in the new fusion line. The magnetic field increases the building frequency of these solidification structures and thus promotes this kind of grain refinement.