On the effects of build orientation, strain rate sensitivity and sample thickness on the mechanical behavior of 316l Stainless Steel manufactured by Selective Laser Melting

The Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) for metallic materials has grown in the past few years. However, this process influences the mechanical properties of the constitutive material and consequently those of the finished product. The influence of the thickness and the building direction of 316L Stainless Steel (SS) specimens produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) on the quasi-static mechanical behavior has already been reported. Considering the strain rate effect, it has been only studied for tensile properties of vertical specimens up to 102s–1. The aim of this work is to study the influence of the thickness and the building orientation at higher strain rates up to 101s–1 and up to 103s–1 for vertical specimens. Compared to conventional material, 316L SS SLM achieves equal and even better mechanical properties due to a refinement of the microstructure. Anisotropy is observed at the macroscopic level, which is explained by the microstructure with different shapes, orientation and size of grains. A minimum thickness of 0.75mm is recommended to recover the mechanical properties of the conventional 316L SS. A positive strain rate sensitivity is observed in every case. The material anisotropy and the thickness variation do not affect the strain rate sensitivity.