Strength and strain hardening of a selective laser melted AlSi10Mg alloy

In this paper, we report that a selective laser melted (SLM) AlSi10Mg alloy has unique hierarchical microstructures. There are micro-sized Al grains and transgranular ultrafine cellular structures around primary Al, and the cell boundary is made up of alternate eutectic Si and eutectic Al phases. The SLM AlSi10Mg alloy has both high tensile strength and high strain-hardening capability, which are superior to Al-Si alloys fabricated by conventional powder metallurgy and cast methods. Post-tensile high-resolution microscopy analyses provide further evidence supporting Orowan looping as a strengthening mechanism of the SLM Al-Si alloy.