Determining peak tensile residual stresses in laser powder bed fusion using diffraction-based analysis

Laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) metal additive manufacturing process is well known to generate large residual stresses in a range of alloys due to the complex and localized thermal cycles. In general, these residual stresses are considered deleterious during manufacturing and subsequent service operation. In several alloy classes including austenitic stainless steels and nickel alloys, tensile residual stresses are generated with magnitudes equal to the yield strength of the processed material depending on geometry and process parameters, which can be located at surfaces/subsurface of a built structure. Knowledge of the magnitude and location of these peak tensile residual stresses is crucial for optimizing in-process or post process mitigation strategies, validating process models, and for consideration in structural integrity assessments. Several diffraction-based approaches have been demonstrated to characterize the magnitude and location of the maximum tensile residual stresses. These approaches include laboratory X-ray diffraction with electrolytic layer removal, energy dispersive synchrotron diffraction and neutron diffraction on PBF-LB prisms of several alloys, resolving the position and magnitude of the peak tensile residual stress. This work provides important considerations when determining these peak tensile residual stresses in newly developed alloys, novel processing strategies and when using more standard residual stress analysis methods.