Tensile, Fatigue Properties and Their Anisotropies of Al-Mg Alloy Fabricated by Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing

The microstructure, mechanical properties (tensile, fatigue, etc.) and the anisotropies of the Al-Mg alloy fabricated by wire arc additive manufacturing are studied in this work. The results show that the microstructure of the deposited alloy is composed of coarse columnar grains in the inner-layer region and fine equiaxed grains in the interlayer region. The tensile and fatigue properties exhibit strong anisotropies. The ultimate tensile strength (258 MPa), yield strength (140 MPa), elongation (21.3%), and fatigue life (2.56 x 10(5)) of the sample along travel direction (0 degrees direction) are the best, whereas those of the sample along the deposited direction (90 degrees direction) are the lowest and those of the sample along 45 degrees direction are the medium. It is found that the lowest strength and elongation of the sample in the deposited direction can be attributed to the large weak bonding areas between the deposition layers, whereas the lowest fatigue property is associated with the fatigue crack propagation along the grain boundaries of the columnar grains.