Mechanical Design And Material Characterization of Addivitively Manufactured Ti6al4v Control Surface For An Aero Vehicle Using Selective Laser Melting Technique

Abstract

The 3D printing of metals from power is an emerging technology in the field of material and manufacturing producing complex shape light weight geometries directly from design data. Selective laser melting is one of the promising additive manufacturing techniques for providing near net shape, less material waste, short leading time, and low cost. Ti6Al4V serves as a great material of choice for this manufacturing technique and provides an excellent combination of properties in aerospace structures because of lightweight, high strength, corrosion resistance and high service temperatures. The aim of this project is to design and optimize control surface and additively manufactured it from Ti6Al4V alloy using Selective laser melting technique. Also, to characterize the material properties of SLMed printed Ti6Al4V alloy to measure thermal and mechanical properties and their comparison with traditional manufactured products mentioned in MIL-HDBK standard. Samples are printed and tested on UTM to measure yield strength, tensile strength, Young`s Modulus and percentage elongation at room temperature and at elevated temperatures up to 600C0. The tensile strength dropped by 67% from room temperature to 600C0. A 3-point bending test is conducted to measure critical Bending strength, Flexural Modulus, and stress intensity factor. Thermal Conductivity is measured by GHFM up to 300C0. coefficient of thermal expansion and specific heat is measured up to 600C0 by dilatometer and scanning calorimeter respectively. All these results are compared with traditional manufactured parts concluded that SLMed products can be used for the same strength and application with less cost, material, and time.