Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Metals, cilt.15, sa.9, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) enables the fabrication of complex lattice-type structures composed of thin struts, offering lightweight, high-strength advantages in aerospace and biomedical applications, among others. While extensive research has examined full lattices and process parameter effects individually, the combined influence of strut geometry, configuration, and processing conditions on mechanical properties remains less understood. This study investigates how the strut number, strut size, cross-sectional shape, and laser energy input affect the mechanical properties of thin-strut L-PBF tensile specimens. Ti-6Al-4V struts were designed and fabricated using an EOS M270 system using five linear energy density (LED) levels. The fabricated specimens were measured in porosity using micro-scaled computed tomography and further evaluated using a tensile tester. The results showed that increasing the strut number leads to significant reductions in tensile strength, even with the same overall cross-sectional area, especially at low LED levels. Size effects on mechanical strengths were observed, though mostly minimal, except at the smallest strut size, where defects tend to be more critical. Circular and square shapes performed similarly under general LED conditions; however, square struts exhibited inferior behavior at the lowest LED level. Overall, LED is the most influential factor, with the greatest tensile strength occurring near 0.2 J/mm; further decreasing or increasing the LED both increase the porosity, degrading mechanical strengths.