Strain Rate Sensitivity of the Additive Manufacturing Material Scalmalloy®

Abstract

This work investigates the influence of strain rate on the stress/strain behaviour of Scalmalloy. This material is an aluminium–scandium–magnesium alloy, specifically developed for additive manufacturing. The bulk yield stress of the material processed by Selective Laser Melting is approximately 340 MPa which can be increased by heat-treating to approximately 530 MPa. These numbers, combined with the low mass density of 2.7 g/cm3, make Scalmalloy an interesting candidate for lightweight crash-absorbing structures. As this application is inherently dynamic, it is of interest to study the loading rate sensitivity, which is difficult to predict: Al–Sc alloys exhibit classic strain rate sensitivity with an increased yield stress at elevated strain rates. However, Al–Mg alloys are known to show the contrary effect, they exhibit less strength as strain rate is increased. To answer the question how these effects combine, we study the dynamic behaviour at four different strain rates ranging from 10−3 to 1000 /s using servo-hydraulic and split-Hopkinson testing methods. The resulting data is analysed in terms of strain rate sensitivity of tensile strength and failure strain. A constitutive model based on a simplified Johnson–Cook approach is employed to simulate the tensile tests and provides good agreement with the experimental observations.