Effect of Thermomechanical Processing on Fatigue Behavior in Solid-State Additive Manufacturing of Al-Mg-Si Alloy

This work presents, for the first time, an in-depth investigation of the structure–property–fatigue relationships of an Al-Mg-Si alloy (AA6061) processed via additive friction stir-deposition (AFS-D). As industry focus continues to shift for more efficient and lightweight structures, quantitative studies on the cyclic performance of additively manufactured materials are needed. In this study, the AFS-D processed AA6061-T6 was machined into specimens in two orthogonal orientations and subjected to monotonic and strain-controlled fatigue testing. The microstructural features of as-deposited AA6061 exhibited evidence of dynamic recrystallization and grain refinement. In addition, significant reduction in the intermetallic particles was observed after AFS-D processing. The fatigue results demonstrate that the as-deposited material, particularly the longitudinal direction, exhibited similar fatigue performance to wrought AA6061-T6 in both low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue regimes, which is a promising result for additively manufactured material in the as-deposited condition. By contrast, the as-deposited build direction orientation possessed slightly lower fatigue resistance than the wrought feedstock material. The AFS-D material was observed to exhibit different damage mechanisms from porosity-based damage mechanisms observed in fusion-based additively manufactured materials. Lastly, a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model was employed to capture the fatigue effects of the AFS-D processing on the AA6061.