Compressive mechanical response and microstructures in low strain rate plastic deformation of stainless steel 316L fabricated by selective laser melting

Characterization of the mechanical properties plays an essential role in the post-processing and evaluation of the functionality of the additively manufactured metallic parts. A number of studies have been focused on the tensile properties of additively manufactured metals. However, the quasi-static compression test of the additively manufactured 316L blocks with different heat-treatment conditions and scanning strategies seems to be overlooked in the literature. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive study of compressive mechanical response in plastic deformation of SS316L fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The mechanical response and microstructures in compressive deformation is analyzed for three printing strategies with 0 degrees-, 90 degrees- and 67.5 degrees scanning and three heat treatment conditions (450 degrees C for 3 h, 1100 degrees C for 1 h with furnace cool and 1100 degrees C for 1 h with water quenching) for selective laser melted (SLMed) stainless steel 316L in comparison with wrought stainless steel 316L in this work. Alteration of mechanical properties, microstructure evolution and compressive deformation mechanism is studied. Melt pool features are not significantly affected by low-temperature heat treatment (450 degrees C for 3 h) but fully dissolved through high-temperature heat treatment (1100 degrees C for 1 h). Hightemperature heat treatment provides a higher resistance to compressive plastic deformation for SLMed 316L compared with the low-temperature heat-treated and as-built samples where more twinnings are observed. The compressive plastic deformation mechanism of 90 degrees- and 67.5 degrees-scanning samples is similar, which mainly results from twinning-induced plasticity. For 0 degrees-scanning samples, the strong crystallographic texture is the main cause of anisotropic deformation. Modelling and simulation have been conducted to explain the anisotropic deformation mechanism of the 0 degrees-scanning strategy. Simulation results suggest that the morphology difference of laser-scanning tracks and melt pools, which leads to material flow along the laser scanning direction, explains the anisotropic deformation mechanism.