XFEM Analysis of Strain Rate Dependent Mechanical Properties of Additively Manufactured 17-4 Precipitation Hardening Stainless Steel

Abstract

AbstractAdditively manufactured (AM) specimens of 17-4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel (SS) corresponding to the three-point bend test, compact tension test, and single edge cracks were analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM) approach. A two-dimensional and three-dimensional elastic-plastic simulation were conducted using “abaqus 6.14” software based on the experimental results and validated with the simulation results. In XFEM, the partition of unity was used to model a crack in the standard finite element mesh. Based on simulation results, the present study compares the mechanical properties of AM 17-4 PH stainless steel samples with those of wrought 17-4 PH samples. Stress intensity factor and J integral were used to measure fracture toughness of the specimens. The change in fracture toughness with strain rate was evaluated by simulating two-dimensional compact tension specimens. The presence of defects such as pores resulting from entrapped gas, un-melted regions, and powder particles resulting from lack of fusion were the main reasons for lower elongation to failure of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) produced 17-4 PH SS reported in the literature.