CHARACTERIZATION OF THERMOS-PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED (AM) AlSi10Mg

The additive manufacturing process rapidly developed in the past two decades is now serving the needs of industries to fast production of samples with tailored properties and complex geometry. The most common alloy printed by the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) method is the AlSi10Mg. Unfortunately, the main disadvantage of this method is the formation of porosity either by the lack of melting and /or release and trapping of gases during solidification.

In the present study, the thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of AlSi10Mg parts were measured in two directions parallel to the printing direction (Z direction) and perpendicular to it (X direction). In both directions, the sample shows abnormal thermal expansion and conductivity compared to the conventionally fabricated sample. After heat treatment, the samples were analyzed using SEM and micro-CT and the thermally induced positive (TIP) phenomenon was observed. It was established that the TIP is more dominant in Z-oriented AlSi10Mg compare to the XY-oriented AlSi10Mg samples. The reasons behind this phenomenon may be related to the printing strategy as will be discussed.