The Characterization of Fatigue Damage of 316L Stainless Steel Parts Formed by Selective Laser Melting with Harmonic Generation Technique

Fatigue damage is the main reason for the failure of parts formed by selective laser melting (SLM) technology. This paper presents a high-order, harmonic, and nonlinear ultrasonic testing system for monitoring the generation and evolution of fatigue damage in SLM 316L stainless steel parts. The results demonstrate that the normalized ultrasonic, nonlinear coefficients show a significant dependence on the degree of fatigue damage of the tested specimen and that the normalized, ultrasonic, and nonlinear coefficients are effective in characterizing the degree of fatigue damage in SLM 316L stainless steel parts. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses show that the variation in the normalized, ultrasonic, nonlinear coefficients reflect the generation and evolution process of dislocation and crack in the fatigue process of SLM 316L stainless steel specimens, and reveal the fatigue damage mechanism of SLM 316L stainless steel parts.