The effect of energy density and porosity structure on tensile properties of 316L stainless steel produced by laser powder bed fusion

Understanding the influence of process parameters and defect structure on the properties of parts produced via laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is a fundamental step towards the broader use of additive manufacturing technologies in critical applications. Furthermore, the ability to predict mechanical properties by simply considering information on the process parameters and defects observed via X-ray computer tomography (XCT) allows one to avoid expensive destructive testing, provide an in-depth understanding of the process quality and represents a viable solution towards process optimisation. Most of the previous works showed that energy density could be used as an excellent synthetic indicator to predict the mechanical properties of parts produced by L-PBF. This paper explores the effect of different energy density levels on the tensile properties of 316L stainless steel parts produced by L-PBF. Different from previous works in the literature, the same level of energy density is obtained considering various combinations of process parameters (speed, power and hatch distance). While energy density is shown to be a good synthetic indicator for predicting ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS), a different behaviour is observed for elongation. Elongation shows a significant variability even when samples are produced at the same level of energy density, which contrasts with results obtained for UTS and YS. Synthetic indices representing the porosity structure are shown to be quite significant for predicting elongation even when the optimal energy density is considered. By combining process parameters with porosity structure, we show that almost a full prediction of the tensile properties can be achieved, paving the way for a significant reduction in expensive destructive tests.