Ductile Damage Model Development and Validation of 316L Laser Powder Bed Fusion Steel Under Multiaxial Stress Conditions

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacture technique which builds components up in layers from a powder feedstock, using a scanning laser to selectively melt the powder into the required shape. The process of LPBF can often introduce defects into the structure of a part, since the powder may not fully melt and leave holes, or pores, in the sample. Excessive laser power may also cause the powder to vaporise and create pores. In whatever manner these pores are formed, they can significantly impact the properties of the finished component. Since pores and small defects already exist in LPBF components, the void growth and ductile fracture behaviour of LPBF components under multiaxial stress conditions needs to be characterised and predicted. In this work, notched bar tensile tests have been performed on samples with a range of notch acuities and hence multiaxial stress states. These tests have enabled ductile damage models to be calibrated and finite element (FE) simulations of the notched bar tests performed. The model was validated by comparison to the experimental results. The model agrees well with the results in many cases assessed in this work, but sometimes suffers from discrepancies and premature failure due to variability in material tensile properties, emphasising the need for sensitivity studies.