Effect of heat treatment on anisotropic mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel produced via laser-based powder bed fusion

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71946-84334, Iran

10.22059/jufgnsm.2025.01.10

Abstract

In this study, the AISI 316L stainless steel samples produced by the laser-based powder bed fusion (LPBF) process were subjected to annealing at temperatures of 900°C, 1000°C, and 1100°C for holding times up to 6h. The impact of annealing treatment on the evolution of microstructure, hardness, and anisotropy in different planes of the samples was systematically investigated. The findings revealed that after annealing at 900°C for 3h, melt pool boundaries remained visible, indicating incomplete diffusion under these conditions. However, at constant temperature increasing the annealing duration to 4h, resulted in the disappearing of melt pool boundaries, and reducing the average hardness values from 256, 271, 242 HV0.2 to 195, 198, and 205 HV0.2 in TD-ND, TD-BD, and BD-ND planes, respectively. The same behavior was also achieved by annealing at higher temperatures of 1000°C and 1100°C. In addition, by increasing the holding time over 4h, the average hardness raised slowly for all samples, which may be related to the accumulation of carbide particles at grains and grain boundaries that restricts the grain boundary motion. Furthermore, increasing the annealing temperature to 1000°C and 1100°C for 4h led to the formation of annealing twins and complete transformation of columnar grains into equiaxed grains, as observed in the microstructure. A comparison of the microstructure and hardness values (186-188HV0.2) confirmed that full recrystallization and the elimination of anisotropy were achieved after annealing at 1100°C for 4h due to the formation of new recrystallized grains, annihilation of cell structures and complete dissolution of melt pool boundaries.

Keywords

References

  1.  

    1. A. Saboori, A. Aversa, G. Marchese, S. Biamino, M. Lombardi, and P. Fino, “Microstructure and mechanical properties of AISI 316L produced by directed energy deposition-based additive manufacturing: A review,” Applied sciences, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 3310, 2020.
    2. S. Bahl, S. Mishra, K. Yazar, I. R. Kola, K. Chatterjee, and S. Suwas, “Non-equilibrium microstructure, crystallographic texture and morphological texture synergistically result in unusual mechanical properties of 3D printed 316L stainless steel,” Additive Manufacturing, vol. 28, pp. 65-77, 2019.
    3. X. Liang, “High cycle fatigue behavior of additive manufactured stainless steel 316L: free surface effect and microstructural heterogeneity,” HESAM Université, 2020.
    4. C. Keller, K. Tabalaiev, G. Marnier, J. Noudem, X. Sauvage, and E. Hug, “Influence of spark plasma sintering conditions on the sintering and functional properties of an ultra-fine grained 316L stainless steel obtained from ball-milled powder,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 665, pp. 125-134, 2016.
    5. D. Landolt, Corrosion and surface chemistry of metals: EPFL press, 2007.
    6. M. Naghizadeh, and H. Mirzadeh, “Elucidating the effect of alloying elements on the behavior of austenitic stainless steels at elevated temperatures,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, vol. 47, pp. 5698-5703, 2016.
    7. K. Saeidi, and F. Akhtar, "Microstructure-tailored stainless steels with high mechanical performance at elevated temperature," Stainless Steels and Alloys: IntechOpen London, UK, 2018.
    8. T. DebRoy, H. L. Wei, J. S. Zuback, T. Mukherjee, J. W. Elmer, J. O. Milewski, A. M. Beese, A. d. Wilson-Heid, A. De, and W. Zhang, “Additive manufacturing of metallic components–process, structure and properties,” Progress in Materials Science, vol. 92, pp. 112-224, 2018.
    9. J. P. Oliveira, A. LaLonde, and J. Ma, “Processing parameters in laser powder bed fusion metal additive manufacturing,” Materials & Design, vol. 193, pp. 108762, 2020.
    10. T. Ronneberg, C. M. Davies, and P. A. Hooper, “Revealing relationships between porosity, microstructure and mechanical properties of laser powder bed fusion 316L stainless steel through heat treatment,” Materials & Design, vol. 189, pp. 108481, 2020.
    11. W. Abd-Elaziem, S. Elkatatny, A.-E. Abd-Elaziem, M. Khedr, M. A. Abd El-baky, M. A. Hassan, M. Abu-Okail, M. Mohammed, A. Järvenpää, and T. Allam, “On the current research progress of metallic materials fabricated by laser powder bed fusion process: a review,” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, vol. 20, pp. 681-707, 2022.
    12. W. J. Sames, F. List, S. Pannala, R. R. Dehoff, and S. S. Babu, “The metallurgy and processing science of metal additive manufacturing,” International materials reviews, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 315-360, 2016.
    13. M. Brandt, “Laser additive manufacturing: materials, design, technologies, and applications,” 2016.
    14. L. Hitzler, C. Janousch, J. Schanz, M. Merkel, B. Heine, F. Mack, W. Hall, and A. Öchsner, “Direction and location dependency of selective laser melted AlSi10Mg specimens,” Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 243, pp. 48-61, 2017.
    15. R. Shrestha, J. Simsiriwong, N. Shamsaei, S. M. Thompson, and L. Bian, “Effect of build orientation on the fatigue behavior of stainless steel 316L manufactured via a laser-powder bed fusion process,” 2016.
    16. S. Mohammadzehi, and H. Mirzadeh, “Grain refinement of austenitic stainless steels by cross rolling and annealing treatment: A review,” Journal of Ultrafine Grained and Nanostructured Materials, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 112-119, 2024.
    17. A. Taghipour, Y. Mazaheri, J. McDavid, S. Sheikhi, M. Braun, J. Shen, B. Klusemann, and S. Ehlers, “Strengthening Mechanisms and Strain Hardening Behavior of 316L Stainless Steel Manufactured by Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion,” Advanced Engineering Materials, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 2201230, 2023.
    18. D. Kumar, G. Shankar, K. Prashanth, and S. Suwas, “Texture dependent strain hardening in additively manufactured stainless steel 316L,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 820, pp. 141483, 2021.
    19. T. M. Mower, and M. J. Long, “Mechanical behavior of additive manufactured, powder-bed laser-fused materials,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 651, pp. 198-213, 2016.
    20. Z. Baicheng, L. Xiaohua, B. Jiaming, G. Junfeng, W. Pan, S. Chen-nan, N. Muiling, Q. Guojun, and W. Jun, “Study of selective laser melting (SLM) Inconel 718 part surface improvement by electrochemical polishing,” Materials & Design, vol. 116, pp. 531-537, 2017.
    21. B. J. M. Freitas, V. A. de Oliveira, P. Gargarella, G. Y. Koga, and C. Bolfarini, “Microstructural characterization and wear resistance of boride-reinforced steel coatings produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM),” Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 426, pp. 127779, 2021.
    22. A. Charmi, R. Falkenberg, L. Ávila, G. Mohr, K. Sommer, A. Ulbricht, M. Sprengel, R. S. Neumann, B. Skrotzki, and A. Evans, “Mechanical anisotropy of additively manufactured stainless steel 316L: An experimental and numerical study,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 799, pp. 140154, 2021.
    23. L. Hitzler, J. Hirsch, B. Heine, M. Merkel, W. Hall, and A. Öchsner, “On the anisotropic mechanical properties of selective laser-melted stainless steel,” Materials, vol. 10, no. 10, pp. 1136, 2017.
    24. I. Morozova, C. Kehm, A. Obrosov, Y. Yang, K. U. M. Miah, E. Uludintceva, S. Fritzsche, S. Weiß, and V. Michailov, “On the Heat Treatment of Selective-Laser-Melted 316L,” Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, vol. 32, no. 10, pp. 4295-4305, 2023.
    25. N. Chen, G. Ma, W. Zhu, A. Godfrey, Z. Shen, G. Wu, and X. Huang, “Enhancement of an additive-manufactured austenitic stainless steel by post-manufacture heat-treatment,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 759, pp. 65-69, 2019.
    26. Q. Chao, S. Thomas, N. Birbilis, P. Cizek, P. D. Hodgson, and D. Fabijanic, “The effect of post-processing heat treatment on the microstructure, residual stress and mechanical properties of selective laser melted 316L stainless steel,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 821, pp. 141611, 2021.
    27. W.-Y. Wang, A. Godfrey, and W. Liu, “Effect of heat treatment on microstructural evolution in additively manufactured 316L stainless steel,” Metals, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 1062, 2023.
    28. F. Pinto, L. S. Aota, I. R. Souza Filho, D. Raabe, and H. R. Z. Sandim, “Recrystallization in non-conventional microstructures of 316L stainless steel produced via laser powder-bed fusion: effect of particle coarsening kinetics,” Journal of Materials Science, vol. 57, no. 21, pp. 9576-9598, 2022.
    29. E. de Sonis, S. Dépinoy, P.-F. Giroux, H. Maskrot, L. Lemarquis, O. Hercher, F. Villaret, and A.-F. Gourgues-Lorenzon, “Dependency of recrystallization kinetics on the solidification microstructure of 316L stainless steel processed by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF),” Materials Characterization, vol. 194, pp. 112370, 2022.
    30. J. Gholamzadeh, S. M. Fatemi, N. Mollaei, and A. Abedi, “Processing of Ultrafine/nano-grained microstructures through additive manufacturing techniques: a critical review,” Journal of Ultrafine Grained and Nanostructured Materials, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 203-221, 2024.
    31. J. L. Tan, C. Tang, and C. H. Wong, “A computational study on porosity evolution in parts produced by selective laser melting,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, vol. 49, pp. 3663-3673, 2018.
    32. R. Casati, J. Lemke, and M. Vedani, “Microstructure and fracture behavior of 316L austenitic stainless steel produced by selective laser melting,” Journal of Materials Science & Technology, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 738-744, 2016.
    33. Y. Zhong, L. Liu, S. Wikman, D. Cui, and Z. Shen, “Intragranular cellular segregation network structure strengthening 316L stainless steel prepared by selective laser melting,” Journal of Nuclear Materials, vol 470 ,pp. 170-178, 2016.
    34. D. Wang, C. Song, Y. Yang, and Y. Bai, “Investigation of crystal growth mechanism during selective laser melting and mechanical property characterization of 316L stainless steel parts,” Materials & Design, vol. 100, pp. 291-299 2016.
    35. K. Chadha, Y. Tian, J. G. Spray, and C. Aranas Jr, “Effect of annealing heat treatment on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of hot isostatic pressed 316L stainless steel fabricated by laser powder bed fusion,” Metals, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 753, 2020.
    36. P. Deng, H. Yin, M. Song, D. Li, Y. Zheng, B. C. Prorok, and X. Lou, “On the thermal stability of dislocation cellular structures in additively manufactured austenitic stainless steels: roles of heavy element segregation and stacking fault energy,” JOM, vol. 72, pp. 4232-4243, 2020.
    37. C. Hopper, C. I. Pruncu, P. A. Hooper, Z. Tan, S.-T. Yang, Y. Liu, and J. Jiang, “The effects of hot forging on the preform additive manufactured 316 stainless steel parts,” Micron, vol 143 ,pp. 103026, 2021.
    38. B. Weiss, and R. Stickler, “Phase instabilities during high temperature exposure of 316 austenitic stainless steel,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 3, pp. 851-866, 1972.
    39. G. Tapia, and A. Elwany, “A review on process monitoring and control in metal-based additive manufacturing,” Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, vol. 136, no. 6, pp. 060801, 2014.
    40. H. Roirand, A. Pugliara, B. Malard, A. Hor, and N. Saintier, “Multiscale study of additively manufactured 316 L microstructure sensitivity to heat treatment over a wide temperature range,” Materials Characterization, vol. 208, pp. 113603, 2024.
    41. Y. Liu, D. Xie, and F. Lv, “Strength Enhancement of Laser Powder Bed Fusion 316L by Addition of Nano TiC Particles,” Materials, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 1129, 2024.
    42. Y. Lu, H. Zhang, P. Xue, L. Wu, F. Liu, L. Jia, D. Ni, B. Xiao, and Z. Ma, “Microstructural Evaluation and Tensile Properties of Al-Mg-Sc-Zr Alloys Prepared by LPBF,” Crystals, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 913, 2023.
Journal of Ultrafine Grained and Nanostructured Materials
Volume 58, Issue 1
June 2025
Pages 95-107

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 24 December 2024
  • Revise Date: 04 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 10 February 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics