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Investigation on elastic properties and unconventional plasticity of 316L stainless steel processed by selective laser melting technology

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Abstract

In general, traditionally manufactured steel alloys exhibit a typical elastic plastic deformation distinguished by linear and nonlinear stress–strain curves. However, an unconventional elastic–plastic behavior was observed from the 3D-printed 316L stainless steel specimens in this study, which showed no noticeable hardening in their elastic–near perfect plastic behavior. For comparison, similar tests were also performed on conventionally processed (hot rolled) 316L stainless steel samples. Microhardness indentation, resonant frequency, and tensile test have been performed on both types of samples and the results were compared with the ones available in the literature. Microstructural characteristics of the specimens produced by the two technologies were compared to explain the unconventional elastic–plastic behaviors of the 3D-printed specimens. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed for the analysis of microstructural characteristics of the specimens. High concentrations of dislocations along the grain boundaries were observed in the 3D-printed specimens that explains the increase of yield strength and exceptional plastic behavior of the material.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful for valuable help on microstructural characterization using SEM and TEM by NDSU Electron Microscopy Center. FA and IA acknowledge financial support from ND NASA EPSCoR Supplemental Project Funding Award. IS gratefully acknowledges financial support of NASA Cooperative agreement 80NSSC20M0215 to NMSU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, 58108, USA

    Ismat Ara, Fardad Azarmi & Xiangqing W. Tangpong

  2. Department of Ag and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, 58108, USA

    Sulaymon Eshkabilov

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88001, USA

    Igor Sevostianov

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  1. Ismat Ara
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Correspondence to Fardad Azarmi.

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Ara, I., Eshkabilov, S., Azarmi, F. et al. Investigation on elastic properties and unconventional plasticity of 316L stainless steel processed by selective laser melting technology. Prog Addit Manuf 7, 1169–1181 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40964-022-00291-w

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