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Finite element evaluation of fracture toughness and crack propagation in LB-PBF AlSi10Mg

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Abstract

Fracture toughness properties of additively manufactured (AM) AlSi10Mg were explored computationally in this work. FE investigation of a previous experimental work on AlSi10Mg involving varying building directions was explored through critical crack opening displacement (COD), stationary crack method and extended finite element method (XFEM). Load–displacement curves for each of the varying build cases were simulated using COD method. The knife-edge displacements from the COD models were used in separately created stationary crack models to simulate the J resistance behaviour of the models. The simulated J curves could capture the anisotropy due to the varying build conditions, and the fracture toughness values correlate well with experimental results. Further, XFEM models were created at specimen scale and a meso-scale, respectively, using a ‘sub-modelling’ approach. The meso-scale model could legitimately predict the crack path reported in the literature for similar build conditions. Also, a better understanding of the crack propagation behaviour in AlSi10Mg was achieved. A novel modelling strategy was established which could help in future for AM designs.

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Abbreviations

COD:

Critical crack opening displacement

FE:

Finite element

XFEM:

Extended finite element method

AM:

Additively manufactured

LB-PBF:

Laser-based powder bed fusion

J :

J-integral value

\(\delta \) :

Crack mouth opening displacement

\(\delta _{c} \) :

Critical crack mouth opening displacement

\(J_{\textrm{IC}}\) :

Critical values of J-integral

\(K_{\textrm{IC}}\) :

Fracture toughness

\(G_{\textrm{IC}}\) :

Critical value of energy release rate

ASTM:

American Society for Testing and Materials

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, 711103, India

    Aniket Chakrabarty, Rohit Sahu, Ashutosh Kumar & Niloy Khutia

  2. Institute of Materials Science, Technical University of Munich, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Leonhard Hitzler

  3. Materials Engineering Division, National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, 831007, India

    H. N. Bar

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  1. Aniket Chakrabarty
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Correspondence to Niloy Khutia.

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Communicated by Andreas Öchsner.

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Chakrabarty, A., Sahu, R., Kumar, A. et al. Finite element evaluation of fracture toughness and crack propagation in LB-PBF AlSi10Mg. Continuum Mech. Thermodyn. 35, 677–697 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00161-023-01206-y

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