Strain Rate and Temperature Effects in Nanoindentation Testing on Hardness in Selective Laser Melting IN718

The microstructure and mechanical hardness of Inconel 718 (INC718) hexagonal honeycomb cellular structure manufactured by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) was studied in this work. Non-heat-treated SLM-produced samples with cell wall thicknesses of 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm were studied. The hardness was measured using MTS Nanoindenter. For room temperature, continuous hardness measurements over penetration depths up to 2 µm under three different strain rates of 0.02, 0.05 and 0.08 s−1 was performed. For the 100 and 200°C, single hardness measurements at eight different depths were performed. The grain size was found to change considerably as the cell wall thickness changed from 0.6 mm to 0.4 mm compared to the change from 0.8 mm to 0.6 mm. similar trend in mechanical hardness reduction and strain rate sensitivity changes were observed between the three samples. The microstructure and hardness showed anisotropy between the planes parallel and perpendicular to the build planes as well. Temperature and strain rate indentation size effect model developed by the second author was modified and used to evaluate the intrinsic material length scale used in gradient plasticity theory.