Effect of Internal Defects on the Fatigue Behavior of Additive Manufactured Metal Components: A Comparison between Ti6Al4V and Inconel 718

In order to obtain a widespread application of Additive Manufactured (AM) technology in the aircraft industry for fatigue critical parts, a detailed characterization of the Fatigue and Damage Tolerance (F&DT) behavior of structural components is required. Metal AM techniques in particular are prone to internal defects inherently present due to the nature of the process, which have a detrimental effect on fatigue properties. In the present work, Ti6Al4V and Inconel 718 coupons with artificially induced defects of different dimensions were produced by the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technique. Fatigue tests were performed, and a different defect sensitiveness was observed between the two materials with Inconel being more defect tolerant compared to Titanium. The environmental role at the crack tip of internal defects was discussed, and based on a purely fracture mechanics approach, a simplified stress–life–defect size model was finally devised. The experimental test results together with the information obtained from the fracture surface analysis of tested samples are used to validate the model predictions. The proposed approach could be adopted to define a critical defect size map to be used for tailored Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) evaluation.