A State-of-the-Art Review on Fatigue Performance of Powder Bed Fusion-Built Alloy 718

Alloy 718 is a Ni-Fe-based superalloy, which has been successfully adapted to powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing because of the alloy’s adaptability with such emerging technology in achieving enhanced mechanical properties. Despite a promising perspective for PBF-built Alloy 718 in different industries, a few factors, including microstructural non-uniformities, volumetric defects, undesired non-metallic inclusions, anisotropic behavior, residual stress, as well as surface and sub-surface irregularities, lead to premature fatigue life of the parts. However, the PBF technology has been quickly growing, and associate progress has resulted in substantial advances in quality, hence increased fatigue life of the parts. Therefore, a critical assessment of the efficacy of the PBF-built Alloy 718 parts can be highly enlightening. A fundamental understanding of the relationship between feedstock material, manufacturing process, process parameters, microstructure, properties, and fatigue life of PBF-built Alloy 718 is crucial for improving the characteristics of the current materials, designing new alloy systems, and enhancing the capability of the PBF techniques. The present paper aims to comprehensively review the fundamentals and recent advances in the PBF-built Alloy 718 parts with improved fatigue life, the influence of thermal and mechanical post-treatment, mechanisms of fatigue crack initiation and growth, thermo-mechanical fatigue, dwell-time fatigue, as well as fracture behavior in different loading conditions and environments considering anisotropic characteristics of the material. An unbiased review of the literature provides an understanding of the advanced and outstanding achievements in the field that assure further research. An evaluation of the status of the field, the gaps in the theoretical understanding, and the fundamental needs for the sustainable development of PBF-built Alloy 718 with enhanced fatigue life in specific applications are also provided.