COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL OPEN-CELL ALUMINUM FOAM AND ITS ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED TWIN

摘要

With the exciting potential of additive manufacturing of metals to produce geometrically complex structures come many unknowns and uncertainties regarding the processmicrostructure- property relationships of the additively manufactured (AM) parts, especially in comparison to their conventionally manufactured counterparts. This work attempts to elucidate some key differences between AM and cast parts by comparing the deformation response of two sub-components that are nearly identical (deemed, “twins”) except for the route by which each was manufactured. The sub-components are open-cell foams of aluminum alloy 6061. The baseline open-cell foam is conventionally produced via investment casting. Two copies are produced using laser powder bed fusion. An in-situ load frame is developed to measure the fullfield deformation of the foams under compressive loading using X-ray micro-computed tomography. Differences among the aluminum foams are exemplified by the load-displacement response and by local deformation of isolated ligaments within the volume. This proof-ofconcept study investigates a structural geometry that exposes both the advantages and potential disadvantages of additive manufacturing in comparison to traditional manufacturing routes.