Phase Fraction and Evolution of Additively Manufactured (AM) 15-5 Stainless Steel and Inconel 625 AM-Bench Artifacts

A proper understanding of the structure and microstructure of additively manufactured (AM) alloys is essential not only to the prediction and assessment of their material properties, but also to the validation and verification of computer models needed to advance AM technologies. To accelerate AM development, as part of the AM-Bench effort, we conducted rigorous synchrotron-based X-ray scattering and diffraction experiments on two types of AM alloys (AM 15-5 stainless steel and AM Inconel 625). Taking advantage of the high penetration of synchrotron hard X-rays, we determined the phases present in these alloys under different build conditions and their statistically meaningful phase fractions using high-resolution X-ray diffraction. Using in situ multi-scale X-ray scattering and diffraction, we quantitatively analyzed the phase evolution and development of major precipitates in these alloys as a function of time during stress relief heat treatments. These results serve to validate AM microstructure models and provide input to higher-level AM processing and property models to predict the material properties and performances.