Revealing relationships between porosity, microstructure and mechanical properties of laser powder bed fusion 316L stainless steel through heat treatment

The understanding of relationships between processing, microstructure and mechanical properties in laser powder bed fusion is currently incomplete. Microstructure-property relations in 316L stainless steel are revealed in this study using isothermal heat treatments as an investigative tool. As-built material was heat treated to selectively remove microstructural features such as melt pool boundaries, microsegregations and the as-built grain structure to evaluate their influence on yield and failure behaviour. Anisotropic yield behaviour was found to be caused by microstructural features alone and not influenced by porosity. However, ductility and failure were dominated by lack of fusion porosity. The alignment of pores between tracks along layer boundaries was found to cause anisotropic ductility. Three strengthening mechanisms in as-built material were identified as grain boundaries, chemical segregation and dislocation density. Heat treatments were categorised into three regimes: recovery, homogenisation and annealing. The findings of this study show that the shape, size, orientation and distribution of pores are crucial parameters for evaluating the structural integrity of parts produced by laser powder bed fusion.