PSI - Issue 76

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 76 (2026) 19–26

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the FDMD 2025 chairpersons Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V; Cold Metal Fusion (CMF); Strain Controlled Fatigue Testing; Additive Manufacturing; Mean Strain Influence Abstract This study investigates the influence of mean strain on the total number of cycles until failure of Ti6Al4V specimens manufactured using the cold metal fusion additive manufacturing method. In this innovative production technology, metal particles are coated with a polymer binder and joined together layer by layer using a powder bed printer designed for plastics by melting the polymer locally with a low-energy laser. The resulting green part is depowdered, de-bindered and sintered to achieve its full density. The fatigue performance is influenced by the surface roughness, inherent defects and the microstructure. This study investigates the influence of mean strain on the fatigue strength and which existing mean strain corrections can be used to predict the fatigue life of parts manufactured using this novel manufacturing technology. 5th International Symposium on Fatigue Design and Material Defects FDMD 2025 Mean Strain Influence in Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Ti6Al4V Additively Manufactured using Cold Metal Fusion D. Kaschube a,b, ∗ , M. Malekan a , B. Bohlmann a,b a Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, 6400 Sønderborg, Denmark b Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kiel University of Applied Sciences,24149 Kiel, Germany

1. Introduction

The cold metal fusion (CMF) additive manufacturing process is relatively new and consists of a shaping stage followed by a sintering process. Previous studies on this process have shown that, depending on the geometry of the component, internal compressive stresses can occur in the material after the sintering process. These compres sive stresses cause a change in the fatigue behaviour and necessitate a more detailed investigation of this behaviour, Kaschube and Bohlmann (2024). The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of tensile and compressive stresses on small Ti6Al4V samples produced by CMF in order to incorporate this influence into the calculation of future components. To achieve this goal, strain controlled fatigue tests are carried out at R ε = 0 (tension-release), R ε = −∞ (com pression release) and R ε = − 1 (tension-compression) with R ε = ε min /ε max and evaluated using various mean strain theories.

∗ Corresponding author E-mail address: deborah.kaschube@fh-kiel.de (D. Kaschube).

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the FDMD 2025 chairpersons 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.12.282