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Work in progress · still being written

Metal AM Process Characterization

Mechanical characterization of additively manufactured 15-5PH stainless steel across process parameters, using DIC strain measurement and computer-vision porosity analysis.

UCF2021

Metal AM Process Characterization

01Process, porosity and strength

Metal additive manufacturing trades the predictability of wrought stock for design freedom, but process parameters leave behind internal porosity that drives where and how a part fails. To use AM structurally, you have to connect process → porosity → mechanical behavior with real data.

02Mechanical characterization

I ran tensile tests on 15-5PH stainless specimens printed across a range of process parameters, capturing full-field deformation with digital image correlation instead of a single extensometer.

Speckled AM tensile specimen.
Fig. 01Speckled AM tensile specimen.
Stress-strain curve reconstructed from DIC data.
Fig. 02Stress-strain curve reconstructed from DIC data.
  • Reconstructed stress-strain curves and Eyy strain fields from speckle-tracked video.
  • Extracted modulus, yield and ultimate strength, and compared parameter sets to isolate process effects.
Overlaid responses across the parameter sweep.
Fig. 03Overlaid responses across the parameter sweep.

03Porosity analysis

To explain the scatter, I wrote a MATLAB pipeline that segments pores in cross-sectional micrographs, quantifying size, count and distribution so porosity can be correlated with measured strength and failure location.

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