Low-Cycle Fatigue Properties of AlSi10Mg Alloy Manufactured by SLM Technology

Abstract

The thesis is focused on the experimental study of a special type of Aluminum alloy manufactured by 3D printing to evaluate the behavior of the material under low cycle fatigue tests. The Finite Element Method is applied to validate the proposed approach in particular cases. This study contains an evaluation of mechanical testing for stress-strain behavior investigation of 3D printed AlSi10Mg Alloy. All tests were performed at room temperature on the LabControl 100kN/1000Nm hydraulic testing machine at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in the VSB-Technical University of Ostrava. Strain-controlled uniaxial fatigue testing is utilized to predict the life spent on the specimen under cyclic loading. Then, a combination method consisting of analytical and numerical approaches will be implemented to obtain more optimized data of fatigue tests. Selected low cycle fatigue tests are used for finite element simulations. The Chaboche kinematic hardening rule in combination with nonlinear isotropic hardening is used to describe the stress-strain behavior. The model is also calibrated to the case of a stress-controlled test with a non-zero mean stress, when an accumulation of plastic deformation, so-called cyclic creep or ratcheting, occurs in the sample.