Size dependence of microstructure of AlSi10Mg alloy fabricated by selective laser melting
Highlights: • Plate-shaped samples with various widths were fabricated via selective laser melting. • The hardness of AlSi10Mg samples slightly decreased with decreasing sample width. • The alloy sample size had a slight effect on microstructure of the α-Al matrix. • Precipitation of Si phase in α-Al matrix was enhanced by reducing the sample size. • The softening by reducing sample size is likely due to their slower cooling rate. - Abstract: In order to investigate the size dependence of microstructure of the AlSi10Mg alloy fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) combined with a powder bed technique, plate-shaped AlSi10Mg alloy samples with various widths (ranging from approximately 10 mm to 0.3 mm) were produced in this study. All the fabricated samples exhibited characteristic microstructural morphologies consisting of melt pools with columnar α-Al grains surrounded by fine eutectic Si particles, whereas their sample sizes had a relatively small effect on the texture and average grain size of the α-Al matrix. However, the formation of fine Si precipitates inside the columnar α-Al grains was observed more often for the smaller-sized samples, which could be a possible dominant contributor to the observed softening of the sample by reducing sample size. The obtained results were utilized for discussing the size dependence of the strength of the SLM-manufactured porous alloy samples.