Effect of Thermomechanical Processing on the Impact Deformation of Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steel

WoS Article

en

This study presents a multifacet analysis of the microstructural mechanics revealing the thermomechanical processing effects on the impact deformation of ANSI 316L stainless steel. The raw material is additively manufactured by laser powder bed fusion. Samples of three states are studied: as-printed (AP), postprocessed via cold rotary swaging (CRS), and postprocessed via hot rotary swaging (HRS). A series of state-of-the-art techniques are employed to evaluate the microstructural properties. This includes the quantification of residual strain (via neutron and X-ray diffraction), substructure development (via electron microscopy), porosity (via X-ray tomography), and microhardness (via indentation). The important findings are: 1) The AP sample features characteristic distributions of residual strain (i.e., tension around the cylinder edge, compression toward the core) and numerous pores; 2) postprocessing via HRS homogenizes the microstructure and eliminated porosity, while CRS causes significant grain refinement and increase in the microhardness but does not significantly reduce porosity; 3) impact deformation induces intensive hardening in the CRS and HRS sample, that they show up to 380 HV1 and 420 HV1 in microhardness; 4) on the contrary, the AP material retains its homogeneity after impact deformation. These important results shed light on enhancing the impact performance of additively manufactured steel through thermomechanical postprocessing.

AISI 316L steel, impact, laser powder bed fusion, microstructures

2025-07-01

Wiley

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