Observations on comparable aluminium alloy crack growth curves: Additively manufactured Scalmalloy® as an alternative to AA5754 and AA6061-T6 alloys?

Scalmalloy® has been proposed for use as additively manufactured (AM) replacement aluminium alloy parts for civil and military aircraft, and for AM aluminium parts for use in satellites and space structures. This study builds on the results of a prior investigation to reveal that Scalmalloy® has a crack growth curve similar to those associated with aluminium alloys AA5754 and AA6061-T6, which are widely used in the automotive industry and in maritime vessels. The R = 0.1 da/dN versus ΔK curve for small naturally occurring cracks in LPBF Scalmalloy® is also predicted and the additive manufacturing community is challenged to undertake testing to validate or disprove this prediction.