Abstract
Rapid solidification during laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) of AlSi10Mg induces strengthening through the grain refining mechanism; however, the probability of strength variations along with the building direction is always of interest. In this study, the effect of solute rejection during layer-by-layer fusion and solidification on the tensile strength of the LPBF processed AlSi10Mg alloy was studied. To characterize the microstructural features, atom prob tomography (APT) technique was employed, while the uniaxial tensile testing and nano-hardness testing were used to measure the mechanical properties of the AM component. Comparing two samples showed that the sample taken far away from the build plate revealed remarkable differences in size and morphology of intermetallics leading to higher hardness and tensile strength and elongation. A finite element framework to verify the experimental observation were also developed via Abaqus software.