Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665

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Journal of Alloys and Compounds

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom

Effect of building orientation and heat treatment on the anisotropic

tensile properties of AlSi10Mg fabricated by selective laser melting ]]
]]]]]]
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⁎ ⁎
C.G. Wang a, J.X. Zhu a,b, G.W. Wang a, , Y. Qin a, M.Y. Sun a, J.L. Yang a, X.F. Shen a, , S.K. Huang a
a
Institute of Machinery Manufacturing Technology, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China
b
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China

a r t i cl e i nfo a bstr ac t

Article history: In this paper, we investigated the effects of building orientation and heat treatment temperature on the
Received 22 August 2021 anisotropy of SLM-formed AlSi10Mg specimens. Three different deposition orientations of 0°, 45° and 90°
Received in revised form 17 October 2021 and heat treatment temperatures of 270 °C, 300 °C and 330 °C were used to hold the specimens for 2 h,
Accepted 4 November 2021
followed by furnace cooling. The metallographic organization, fracture morphology, grain size and mor­
Available online 14 November 2021
phology, grain orientation and distribution were characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). SEM metallographic shows that the
Keywords:
Additive manufacturing white cell structure is eutectic Si where Si grid-like structure distributes around α-Al dendrites. EBSD results
Selective laser melting show that all specimens consist of a large number of grains growing along < 001 > direction, which is the
AlSi10Mg preferred orientation. The organizational changes in grain size, distribution and low-angle grain boundaries
Anisotropy (LAGBS) caused by orientation and heat treatment were analyzed to confirm the anisotropy of the SLMed
Heat treatment AlSi10Mg alloy and to analyze and explain the reasons for the poor plasticity of the 90° orientation. The
Tensile properties present results provide new insights into the effects of deposition direction and heat treatment parameters
on the microstructure and properties of AlSi10Mg alloy prepared by SLM.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Many researches have been done in additive manufactured

Additive manufacturing has gradually become a vital processing
method for customized parts with complex geometries. It is also
widely used in small batch production due to its low-cost advantage.
Additive manufacturing applications include aerospace, military
equipment, biomedical, mold design, development and testing of
new products and materials [1–3]. Aluminum alloy, especially the
AlSi10Mg, is commonly used in additive manufacturing [4]. The
morphology and size of the eutectic silicon phase formed during
solidification of cast AlSi10Mg have a significant influence on the
properties [5,6]. However, problems such as insufficient mechanical
properties due to excessive roughness are common in aluminum
castings. With the development of laser melting, the effects of rapid
heating and rapid cooling rates during SLM on its properties has
attracted much attention [7]. To improve mechanical properties, the
SLM process addresses the lack of mechanical properties of con­
ventionally cast AlSi10Mg [8].
⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: gwwang13s@alum.imr.ac.cn (G.W. Wang),
xianfeng_shen@163.com (X.F. Shen).
AlSi10Mg, involving the feasibility of manufacturing part [9], pro­
cessing parameters optimization [10], fatigue performance and its
influences on fatigue mechanism [11], the feasibility of forming
special structural parts etc. [12]. Through tensile tests, compression
creeps tests and forming part cutting, multi-dimensional tests etc.,
the mechanical properties are optimized. In addition, at the present
stage, scholars have investigated the mechanical properties and
microstructure characteristics in two different orientations [13]. A
few scholars have investigated the microstructure characteristics in
three different orientations [14], and investigated the effect of Si
morphology on plastic deformation under heat-treated conditions.
The adjustment of toughness and plasticity during heat treatment
explains the anisotropy of the alloy to some extent.
Z.H. Xiong et al. [15] think that the anisotropy is caused by melt
pool boundary (MPB), and systematic research has been carried out. It
is concluded that the pores, residual stress and HAZ positioning of
MPB contribute to the weakness of the alloy, and it is believed that the
specimen is placed horizontally. It has a good combination of strength
and plasticity when stretched. Ch et al. [16] studied SLMed AlSi10Mg
and carried out tensile and compression tests to test the correlation
between mechanical properties and process parameters. It has been
reported that SLMed AlSi10Mg tensile test pieces with different

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.162665
0925-8388/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
forming orientations and analyzes their anisotropy. Their tensile me­
chanical properties are mainly obtained in the horizontal and vertical
directions, without heat treatment. From the existing research, we can
be concluded that the AlSi10Mg produced by SLM exhibits anisotropy.
In macroscopic view, it shows the difference in mechanical properties.
On microscopic level, the SLM-formed AlSi10Mg alloy has a refined
microstructure. Moreover, the distribution and morphology of the
various directions are apparent.
Many additive manufacturing studies show that the columnar
crystals grow epitaxially on micro-level [17]. Epitaxial growth of grains
leads to the anisotropy of mechanical properties as it is related to the
orientation of the grains relative to the load: when the load is per­
pendicular to the forming direction, dislocations accumulate along the
columnar grain boundaries, leading to the formation of microcracks
along these boundaries, resulting in poor ductility [18,19]. When the
load is parallel to the construction direction, this phenomenon is hin­
dered. According to the above-mentioned scholars' research results,
crystal texture also leads to the anisotropic mechanical properties of
additive manufacturing specimens. The crystal structure orientation
affects the stress state of grains, leading to anisotropic mechanical
properties [5,20]. The above findings differ from the current paper.
According to the distribution of Schmidt factor and texture measured
by EBSD, the results of this paper show that although there is texture at
the micro-level, the Schmidt factor distribution shows tiny differences,
which will not significantly affect the mechanical properties.
The research on the anisotropy of AlSi10Mg is mainly focused in
two orientations, horizontal and vertical. Some scholars have paid
more and more attention to the contrast between inclined forming
and horizontal and vertical forming [5]. In addition, the related re­
search cases did not compare the heat treatment state with the as-
fabricated state. They did not show that the heat treatment can
eliminate the weld pool boundary or the fuzzy molten pool. The
boundary is a well-known indicator that affects properties, so we
cannot rule out that the anisotropy can be caused by the grain shape,
distribution, and orientation [21,22]. This requires heat treatment of
the tensile specimen, combining its macroscopic mechanical prop­
erty data with microscopic characterization, and further discussion
for the reason that may cause anisotropy.
Gao et al. [23] have studied the effect of heat treatment at 460°C
~540°C of SLMed AlSi10Mg specimens but without different built or­
ientations. In this paper, we systematically studied effect of building
orientation and heat treatment on the anisotropic tensile properties of
AlSi10Mg fabricated by selective laser melting in different orientations
and different low-temperature heat treatment states. Scholars have
tested the microstructure and room temperature mechanical properties
of cast and heat-treated AlSi10Mg specimens, and the results have
contributed to the study of anisotropy. Various specimens’ tensile
fracture morphology and microstructure were observed and analyzed
by SEM and EBSD microscopic characterization methods. The speci­
mens' mechanical properties, fracture morphology, and microstructure-
morphology in the above-mentioned three orientations were analyzed.
This research focuses on comparing macroscopic data to confirm the
anisotropy, and the anisotropy shows a trend change at different or­
ientations. The reason for the anisotropy is analyzed in combination
with the microstructure. The attempt to clarify the differences in me­
chanical properties comes from the bath boundary, crystal type, dis­
tribution, and orientation. Furthermore, through a set of heat treatment
parameters optimization, it has been found that for the alloy by SLM
manufacturing, the toughness and plasticity is more in line with the
match's requirements by determining its regularity, plasticity, and
toughness, which can be more accurately adjusted as needed.
2. Experiments
This chapter will introduce the experiment content. In Section
2.1, the specimen processing scheme is designed, and the equipment
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Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
process parameters are determined. Section 2.2 describes the pre­
paration method and experimental conditions for tensile specimens.
Section 2.3 describes the micro-hardness, SEM (Scanning Electron
Microscope), EBSD (Electron Backscattered Diffraction) and other
specimen preparation and characterization methods. In this article,
letter abbreviations and corresponding numbers will be used to
describe specimens, such as HT-270°C-2 h, where HT, 270°C and 2 h
stand for heat treatment, heat treatment temperature of 270°C, and
heat treatment time of 2 h, respectively. When the 0 °-HT-270°C-2 h
related signs appear, it means that the specimen was built at 0°, and
was heat-treated at 270°C for 2 h; 90°-As-built represents that it was
built at 90° without heat treatment.
2.1. Specimen preparation and parameter
The experimental specimens were made by EOS M290 equip­
ment from Germany, and the raw materials used were Al-10.13Si-
0.28Mg-0.04Fe (wt%) powder from AVIC Matte. The powder has the
advantages of good fluidity and uniform particle size and is suitable
for additive manufacturing. To explore the effects on anisotropy of
different building orientations and annealing states, with the hor­
izontal direction as the starting position, the angle of clockwise ro­
tation is the deposition direction, and the samples are taken from 0°,
45° and 90° directions respectively. Four kinds of heat treatments
(270°C, 300°C, 330°C, as-built) were set. Under this processing
condition, the heat-treated specimens are heated in the furnace to
the corresponding temperature, kept for 2h, and cooled in the fur­
nace. (Table 1).
Four groups of rectangular AlSi10Mg specimens of x mm × y mm
× z mm were built with EOS M290. The rectangular parts were
horizontally placed according to the coordinate system shown in
Fig. 1(a). The size of the rectangular parallelepiped specimen is
80 mm × 15 mm × 15 mm. The building orientation is parallel, ver­
tical, and inclined at 45° to the long side, and the building orienta­
tion is along the Z-axis, as is shown in Fig. 1(b). Before additive
manufacturing, we preheated the substrate temperature up to 35°C,
closed the cabin, and filled the interior with high purity argon and
exhausted oxygen to ensure the processing environment's stability.
Other machining parameters are shown in Table 2.
2.2. Tensile test specimen preparation
The rectangular parallelepiped specimens manufactured by SLM
were processed into standard tensile test pieces according to the
dimensional standards shown in Fig. 2. The processed tensile test
pieces were shown in Fig. 3. The tensile test was carried out on a
tensile tester at room temperature, and the stretching speed was
2.1 mm/min without using an extensometer.
2.3. Characterization methods and specimen preparation
In the section perpendicular to the tensile direction, 2.5–3 mm
thick samples were taken for microscopic characterization, as shown
in Fig. 4. Every specimen was cut at the end of each formed specimen
for SEM (also used to observe metallography), micro-hardness
testing and EBSD. The characterization surface was perpendicular to
the axis of the tensile specimens.
Table 1
Orthogonal experiment design and variant sets.
Orientation heat treatment 0° 45° 90°
HT-270 °C-2 h √ √ √
HT-300 °C-2 h √ √ √
HT-330 °C-2 h √ √ √
As-built √ √ √
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al. Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665

Fig. 4. Cutting strategy of characterizing specimens.

and distribution of the grains, as well as the fracture surface to

analyze the fracture mechanism.
After the sample was polished to the mirror surface with 3 µm
polishing solution, the surface was cleaned with deionized water
and ethanol. The micro-hardness was tested with 5 N force for 15s.
Three different positions were randomly selected for testing and an
average value was calculated.
The specimens used for EBSD characterization are specimens
Fig. 1. Building orientations of specimens. (a)Specimen building state. (b) Molten pool without the inlay. The process is the same with that for SEM. After
direction in the specimen.
mechanical polishing to mirror level, it needs to be vibration po­
lished for 6–8 h without corrosion. In order to observe the micro­
Table 2
structure of SLMed AlSi10Mg alloy in an all-around way, besides the
SLM parameters for specimen fabrication.
EBSD test pieces shown in Fig. 4, we also cut out a cube from the
Parameter Hatch In fill Recoating Stripe width
specimens with three build angles of As-built and characterized its
Speed 1300 mm/s 1300 mm/s 70 mm/s – three surfaces. So we can see the distribution of crystal grains in
Power 370 W 370 W – – three-dimensional space.
Volume 0.19 mm – – 7 mm
Layer thickness 0.03 mm 0.03 mm – –
3. Results and analysis

This chapter will analyze the macroscopic test and microscopic

Fig. 2. Engineering drawing of specimens used for tensile test.
characterization results of specimens in three building orientations
and four heat treatment states (heat treatment temperature 270°C,
300°C, 330°C and As-built). In Section 3.1, the tensile test data was
analyzed and compared, including ultimate tensile strength (UTS),
yield strength (YS), elongation value (EV). In Section 3.2, the micro-
hardness data was studied. In Sections 3.3–3.5, we analyzed the
microstructure using optical microscopy, SEM and other equip­
ments. The distribution of Si in the Al matrix and the influence of
heat treatment temperature on it were primarily analyzed. In addi­
tion, the connection between microstructure and mechanical prop­
erties is established by combining fracture morphology, grain shape
and size, orientation deviation, weave and Schmidt factor distribu­
tion to analyze the strengthening mechanism.

3.1. Mechanical properties

Fig. 3. Horizontal and vertically and aslant built tensile specimen orientations.
Following this the specimens used for SEM were inlaid, the sur­
face layers were sanded with 320#, 600#, 800#, 1200# and 2000#
sandpaper, then polished with 9 µm, 3 µm diamond polishing liquid,
and finally polished with 20 nm SiO2 emulsion. The specimens were
polished to mirror level, placed in alcohol, vibrated for 10 min in
ultrasonic, and then etched for 35 s with Keller reagent (95.0%
deionized water + 2.5% HNO3 + 1.5% HCl + 1.0% HF, volume fraction).
We used an optical microscope (OM, ZEISS inverted microscope) to
observe the metallurgy, then used SEM to observe the micro­
structure and morphology of the melt pool, the morphology, size
Fig. 5 shows the tensile curves of the specimens. From the end of
the tensile curve in the figure, it is easy to find that the as-built
specimen has no apparent section reduction, but after heat treat­
ment, the section shrinkage is significant. The sequence of the sec­
tion reduction of the specimens was 0° > 45° > 90°.
For the as-built specimens, elongation at fracture of the 0° spe­
cimen is close to 10.1%, the 45° specimen 8.6% and the 90° specimen
7.0%. Similar to the prefabricated specimens, the elongation at break
of the heat treated specimens, 0° > 45° > 90°, is the same with that
reported by U. Tradowsky [24]. The elongation at fracture increases
significantly with increasing heat treatment temperature, but the
difference among the three-building orientations becomes less ob­
vious. For example, after 330°C heat treatment, the elongation at
fracture becomes 21.7%, 21.1%, 19.8%, respectively.
As shown in Table 3, the values of yield strength decrease with
increasing heat treatment temperature, indicating a nonlinear re­
lationship between heat treatment temperature and mechanical
properties. Based on this, the mechanical properties of temperature

3
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al. Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665

Fig. 5. Stress-Strain curves of specimens with different build-up directions and post treatment conditions. (a)As-built(b) 270 °C-2 h (c)300 °C-2 h (d)330 °C-2 h.

Table 3 the ductility of 0° specimens is significantly better. This is the same

Tensile properties of samples.
with the conclusion reached by Tobias Maconachie et al., in their
　 Direction YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) Elongation (%) study on the effect of build orientation on the quasi-static and dy­
As-built 0° 237.67 464.33 10.1 namic response of SLMed AlSi10Mg [5]. By combining Fig. 5, Fig. 6
45° 250.33 471.67 8.6 and Fig. 7 and analyzing the test data of as-built and heat-treated
90° 228 478.33 7 specimens, the following rules can be found:
270 °C-2 h 0° 198.33 303 13.8
45° 205.33 315 13.2
90° 209.33 320.33 12.5
1. For as-built state, the tensile strength of 90° specimens is about
300 °C-2 h 0° 162 250.67 19.2 5–10 MPa higher than that of 45° specimens, and the tensile
45° 164 253.33 19.0 strength of 45° specimens is about 5–10 MPa higher than that of
90° 167.67 262 16.3 0° specimens. It can be seen that there is a slight difference in the
330 °C-2 h 0° 142.33 221 21.7
tensile strength of the specimens formed at different angles.
45° 143.67 226 21.1
90° 147.33 231.33 19.8 2. For heat-treated state, the tensile strength difference between
different buildings orientations did not change significantly
compared with the as-built. However, the ultimate tensile
between 270°C~ 330°C were fitted using logarithm. The properties of strength of three orientations decreases simultaneously, and the
the alloy can be predicted and designed using this function, as relationship between tensile strength and orientation maintains
shown in Fig. 6(b). 90° > 45° > 0°.
In Fig. 7(a) we analyzed the results of the elongation test. The 3. The yield strength of the specimens built in the three construc­
relationship between the elongation rate and the build angle is tion angles is quite different. With the increase of heat treatment
0° > 45° > 90°. Both the as-built state and the heat-treated state temperature, the yield strength difference in different construc­
follow this trend, and the elongation rate of the 45° specimen is tion angles gradually decreases, positively correlated with the
better than that of the 90° specimen. Similarly, this trend is con­ heat treatment temperature. When heat-treated at 330°C, it
sistent with the maximum strain trend because the expression of tends to be consistent.
elongation is [(L2-L1)/L1]* 100%, and the expression of strain is 4. Heat treatment reduces the yield strength of the 90° specimen to
(L2-L1)/35. Both of them belong to the same trend of properties lesser extent and reduces the yield strength of the 0° specimen to
indicators. The functional relationship between elongation value and greater extent, resulting in the change in material properties. The
heat treatment temperature was obtained by using the same fitting final performance between yield strength and building angle is
method, as shown in Fig. 7(b). 0° > 45° > 90° after heat treatment.
As shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, there are regular differences in 5. Heat treatment improves the elongation of the parts, indicating
tensile strength of specimens at different building orientations, and that the plasticity is improved. The higher the heat treatment

4
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 6. (a) Ultimate tensile strength and yield strength tests, (b) Function curve.
temperature, the more significant the elongation. However they
show nonlinear changes. With the increase of temperature, the
elongation increases slowly.
6. The process method of 2 h heat treatment adopted in this paper
can regulate the properties of SLMed alloy by adjusting the heat
treatment temperature. Thus, in the range of 270°C ~ 330°C, the
properties of the alloys are functionally related to temperature. A
logarithmic nonlinear fitting method fits the following functional
model with an orthogonal distance regression method for itera­
tive calculations. By this method, the function of UTS/YS/EV and
heat treatment temperature is obtained as shown in Fig. 6(b) and
Fig. 7(b). If we want to produce parts with a UTS of 270 MPa and
better plasticity, we can pass the curve and fitting equation in
Fig. 6. The 0° sample has a better ductility ratio of 45° and 90°, so
you can use the heat treatment at 280°C for two hours to get the
0° direction of the sample is what we need. In the formula, a, b
and c are the fitting coefficients, whose values have been in­
troduced in the corresponding figure. y is the dependent variable,
representing the measured physical quantity, which can be
strength or hardness, etc, x is the universal independent variable,
the heat treatment temperature.
y=a b*ln (x + c)
According to the room temperature tensile test data and analysis
results, it can be proved that the forming angle of SLMed AlSi10Mg
will produce anisotropy to a certain extent. The anisotropy is
Fig. 7. (a)Elongation value tests, (b) Function curve.
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
manifested in tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, maximum
strain, etc. There is a monotonous relationship among 0°, 45°, 90°,
which accords this alloy's common law: the more vital plasticity, the
better ductility and the lower strength. However, heat treatment
cannot eliminate this anisotropy (nor can it be eliminated under
low-temperature conditions and short holding times).
It is worth noted that the heat treatment changes the yield
strength characteristics of the 0°, 45°, 90° specimens. The relationship
between the yield strength and the building angle is 0° > 45° > 90° in
the as-built state. After the heat treatment, it becomes 90° > 45° > 0°,
and tends to be consistent along with the temperature increases. The
anisotropy of these properties is eliminated.
By controlling the orientation of the building and the heat
treatment process, we can obtain multiple parts with the same YS
but different UTS.
3.2. Micro-hardness
The micro-hardness tests were performed on twelve specimens.
The influence of different building angles and heat treatment tem­
perature on micro-hardness was explored.
The experimental results are shown in Fig. 8(a). There is little
(1)
difference in micro-hardness among 0°, 45°, and 90° specimens.
Each error bar has an overlapping range, so the average micro-
hardness has no apparent law. The surface micro-hardness was ob­
tained independent of building orientation and was not anisotropic.
5
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 8. (a) Hardness distribution of different specimens, (b) Function curve.
For different heat treatment temperatures, the hardness of AlSi10Mg
alloy in As-built is about 125 ± 5 HV, heat-treated at 270°C is about
95 ± 5 HV, 77 ± 5 HV at 300°C and 70 ± 5 HV at 330°C. It can be
found that the heat treatment results in a significant decrease in the
hardness of the SLMed AlSi10Mg alloy. With the increase of the heat
treatment temperature, the hardness of the AlSi10Mg alloy gradually
became lower, but the decline was reduced.
Similarly, to facilitate the on-demand production of the alloy, based
on the SLM process and heat treatment process used in this paper, we
also fitted the function relationship between Vickers hardness and heat
treatment temperature, as shown in Fig. 8(b). It is easy to conclude that
they are also nonlinear variations of the Logarithmic function.
3.3. Microstructure
The metallographic, fracture morphology and microstructure
characteristics of the alloy were observed by using OM, SEM, EBSD
etc. to analyze the relationship between microstructure and me­
chanical properties and explore the anisotropy of tensile properties.
Fig. 9 shows a local magnification morphology of the cross-section
of the tensile specimen under optical microscope. In 0°-built spe­
cimen, as shown in Fig. 9(a), a curved section of the molten pool was
observed. The cross-sectional size of the melt pool varies, which is
caused by the different angles between the scan path direction and
the layer cross-section. In the metallographic diagram of the 45°
specimen, Fig. 9(b), both the approximately parabolic pool and the
long strip pool can be observed, which is caused by the observation
angle. Fig. 9(c) shows melt profiles with different deflection direc­
tions. Significant width differences can be observed in 90°-built spe­
cimens. The interlayer rotation angle is 67°, which is determined by
the interlayer rotation scanning strategy. The size of a single molten
Fig. 9. OM images of cross-section microstructure of tensile specimen. (a) 0°-as-built,(b) 45°-as-built, (c) 90°-as-built.
6
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
pool is approximately 100 µm. The irregular-sized macro pore can be
seen in each graph.
At the same time, the density of three orientations was measured
using metallographic method as 99.86% (0°), 99.84% (45°), and
99.89% (90°), respectively, as is shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that
the difference in building orientation does not affect the density.
Fig. 10 shows four high magnification optical images (a) - (d)
corresponding to the 90° heat treatment state and 90° as-built state.
Scanning traces and microspores can be observed on the surface. The
morphology of the scanning trace is as broad as about 40–100 µm,
and its border shows white and black interphase regions. With the
increase of heat treatment temperature, 270°C, 300°C, and 330°C,
there is a tendency of gradually narrowing the track boundary width,
the white and black interphase regions fade away.
The reason for this is that heat treatment changes the distribu­
tion of α-Al and Si phases. The boundary of the melt channel is the
fast cooling zone, and the cooling rate inside the melt pool is rela­
tively small. The different precipitation rates and amounts of Si at
the center and the boundary lead to the phenomenon in Fig. 10(d).
After heat treatment, Si precipitates and enriches in the Al matrix,
and its distribution is more uniform, as shown in Fig. 10(a), and the
width of the melt pool boundary becomes small. The higher the
temperature, the more pronounced the phenomenon as shown in
Fig. 10(b) and (c).
Specimens with three building orientations were characterized by
SEM, as shown in Fig. 11. In Fig. 11(a), (c) and (e), the boundary of the
molten pool can be seen. In (a) and (c), the melt pool appears as a fish
scale shape, and in (e), the scanning rotation angle is 67°. The boundary
regions marked in (a), (c) and (e) were observed at high magnification
as shown in (b), (d) and (f), and the white Si grid-like was visible. In (b),
the grains are columnar, with a width of about 0.5 ~ 2 µm and a length
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 10. OM images of Cross section microstructure of tensile specimen. (a) 90°-HT-270 °C-2 h,(b) 90°-HT-300 °C-2 h, (c) 90°-HT-330 °C-2 h,(d) 90°-as-built.
of about 1 ~ 5 µm. In (d) and (f), the grid-like structure has equiaxed
shapes with diameters of about 0.5 ~ 2 µm. In addition, it is easy to find
that the white Si grid-like is smaller near the pool boundary and more
prominent near the pool center. The grid-like Si phase is white in the Al
matrix, which was reported in the study of selective laser melting of
AlSi10Mg alloy by K. Kempen [25].
Fig. 12 shows the high magnification SEM images of morphology
at 90° and heat-treated at 300°C. Compared to those without heat
treatment, we can found that the Si is flake-like distributed. At
300°C, the white Si grid becomes uniform Si particles with sizes
ranging from several hundred of nanometers to several microns,
indicating that the heat treatment process affects the distribution of
the Si phase in the Al matrix. That explains the phenomenon ob­
served in Fig. 10 and verifies the conjecture.
3.4. Fractography
In order to better understand the influence of building orienta­
tion and heat treatment on the properties, we studied the fracture
morphology of the SLMed AlSi10Mg specimen, and the results are
shown in Fig. 13.
Fracture surface images of the ruptured specimens taken at higher
magnifications are presented in Fig. 13(d)-(f). The red arrows in the
figure show a certain number of surfaces. The formation of destructive
surfaces and destructive steps indicate that the fracture of the specimen
may have occurred with the crystal. However, the fracture morphology
shows more relatively deep dimples, so the fracture is ductile.
In addition, the pore and unfused powder were considered to be
caused by the parameter of the SLMed AlSi10Mg process, which may
lead to fracture. There are a few pores on the fracture surface, as
shown in Fig. 13(c). With the change of building orientation,
7
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
different lines can be seen on the fracture surface, fish scale traces
exist at 0°, and obvious 67° scan tracks exist at 45° and 90°, as shown
in Fig. 13(a) (b) (c). The means that the building orientation sig­
nificantly affects the fracture behavior of the specimen.
As shown in Fig. 14, three heat-treated samples are analyzed in
the 90° direction. Observation at low magnification showed un-
melted AlSi10Mg powder particles and micropores defects. Under
high magnification observation, a cluster structure similar to co­
lumnar crystals can be seen at the fractures under low-temperature
heat treatment, which is cell segregation rather than crystal grains.
There are apparent dimples at the fracture shown in Fig. 14 (d)-(f)
and unfused powder in Fig. 14 (b) and micropores in Fig. 14(c); they are
commonly found in specimens of various building orientations and
temperatures. At HT-270°C-2 h, the number of dimples in the fracture
is small and less than 1 µm. At HT-300°C-2 h, more dimples were ob­
served at the fracture surface of the sample, and their sizes were
1–2 µm. Under the hT-330°C-2 h condition, the dimples were bigger,
and their sizes mainly ranged from 1 µm to 4 µm. By analyzing of the
number and size distribution of dimples, we can conclude that heat
treatment increases the number and size of dimples. With the increase
of heat treatment temperature, the size of dimples increases, which is
manifested as plasticity enhancement. In this regard, combined with
the mechanical properties, it can be seen that heat treatment can in­
crease the number and size of dimples, which is manifested as plastic
enhancement, tensile strength and yield strength reduction.
3.5. EBSD
Fig. 15 shows the EBSD inverse pole diagrams (IPF) of SLMed 0°
as-built AlSi10Mg collected in an extensive range. It shows the three-
dimensional IPF for different building orientations, where (a) (b) (c)
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al. Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665

Fig. 11. SEM image of the SLMed specimens. (a)-(b) 0° as-built, (c)-(d) 45° as-built, (e)-(f) 90° as-built.

Fig. 12. SEM image of the 90° SLMed specimens. (a)90° as-built, (b)90° HT-300 °C-2 h.

indicates the deposition directions of 0°, 45°, and 90°, respec­
tively. < 001 > directional textures can be easily seen in each graph. It
can be seen from the grain distribution on the upper surface of
Fig. 15(c) that the melt channel fringes are mainly composed of in­
ternal coarse grain zone, heat-affected zone, and boundary fine-
grain zone. The fine grain size of the melt pool boundary is about
2–10 µm. At the same time, the grains in the melt channel have a
significant tendency to preferential orientation < 001 > .
The upper surface of the 0°-as-built shown in Fig. 15(a) and the
upper surface of the 45°-as-built shown in Fig. 15(b) have different

8
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al. Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665

Fig. 13. SEM images of the fracture surface of the as-built specimens.

Fig. 14. SEM images of the fracture surface of the heat treatment specimens.

crystal grain shapes and distributions. This is because the detection
surface of the former is the longitudinal direction of the molten pool.
The cross-section is a plane parallel to the growth direction, and the
detection surface of the latter is the oblique section of the molten
pool, that is, a plane that is 45° to the construction direction.
Combining the EBSD data of the specimen's front surface with 0°
morphology shown in Fig. 15(a), it can be determined that the white
grid-like structure is not the grain boundary but the eutectic Si and
α-Al matrix. The distribution is the cell segregation produced during
crystal growth. The black area is the α-Al matrix, and the white is the

9
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 15. EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) maps in three-dimensional views of as-built SLMed AlSi10Mg. (a) 0° built, (b) 45° built, (c) 90° built.
Fig. 16. Comparison and analysis for properties of SLMed FCC structure alloy [16,29–33].
Si phase. Si is distributed in a grid structure in the matrix. The grid
shape is similar to the overall shape of the crystal grains, but the size
is small. It can be concluded from the grain distribution on the upper
surface of Fig. 15(b) that the size of the alloy grains is mostly
2–70 µm, while the white grid-like size shown by SEM is about
0.5–2 µm, which also shows that the white grid structure is not
crystal.
The grain orientation we observed is consistent with the gen­
erally accepted direction of grain growth [26]. The phenomenon
occurs in both face-centered cube (FCC) and body-centered cubic
(BCC) crystals [27,28]. Although the degree and distribution of the
preferred orientation may be different due to different process
parameters, it indicates apparent texture in the fabrication of SLMed
AlSi10Mg.
The above phenomenon indicates anisotropy inside the SLM-
formed parts of AlSi10Mg, and the difference is related to the
forming angle. It is proved that for the tensile properties of 0°, 45°
and 90°, the highest tensile strength of 90° may relate to this factor,
because this direction is the growth direction of the columnar
crystal, and the columnar crystal in this direction has the preferred
orientation. However, for many materials with FCC structure, it has
10
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
been found that 90° has lower elongation and higher UTS than 0°
when studying the effects of different construction orientations on
properties (Fig. 16), contrary to the findings in this paper. In this
regard, we analyzed the reasons for such differences.
The properties studies of SLMed AlSi10Mg and 316 L with dif­
ferent orientations show that 316L has better plasticity when built
along 90°, while AlSi10Mg has better plasticity when constructed
along 0° [16,29–33]. Both of them were FCC structures and should
have the same properties characteristics. However, because the α-
Al dendrites are covered by Si lattices when external forces stretch
them, and then the slip starts, dislocation accumulation of dif­
ferent degrees is easily formed on the slip surface due to the
presence of Si particles, which hinders slip. Since the 90° con­
structed specimen is stretched along < 001 > and the slip direction
is < 011 > , the dislocation packing will increase with the develop­
ment of the slip. However, the 0° constructed specimen is stret­
ched vertical to < 001 > , and the slip direction is < 110 > , so the
dislocation pile-up will not increase with slip. More grains in this
direction will have stronger ability to coordinate deformation. That
results in poorer ductility and higher strength when AlSi10Mg is
constructed along 90°.
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 17. EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) maps in three-dimensional views of SLMed AlSi10Mg. (a) 0 °-As-built, (b) 0 °-HT-270 °C-2 h, (c) 0 °-HT-300 °C-2 h, (d) 0 °-HT-330 °C-2 h.
In the following we compare the microstructure of the tensile
cross-section of the 0° specimens at 270°C, 300°C, and 330°C an­
nealing heat treatment for 2 h and As-built. The plane of observation
is parallel to the building orientation. The distribution of morpho­
logical grains is relatively regular; the inside of the molten pool is all
narrow and long columnar crystals, the boundary of the molten pool
is fine equiaxed crystals, and the columnar crystals have no evidence
of epitaxial growth. From Fig. 17, it can be seen that the size of the
molten pool is about 100–200 µm, and it is mainly composed of
equiaxed crystals and columnar crystals. The columnar crystals in­
side the molten pool are about 10–20 µm wide. It is 30–60 µm long
and exhibits epitaxial growth. The equiaxed crystal size at the
boundary of the molten pool is mainly 2–10 µm in diameter.
The grain distribution of the heat treatment specimen is dif­
ferent. The boundary of the melt pool is no longer obvious, and a
large number of small grains disappear at the boundary. In contrast,
the narrow columnar crystals in the melt pool become coarse co­
lumnar crystals an undeniable feature of epitaxial growth. Among
them, the grains of the heat-treated at 270°C have obvious grain
growth compared with the morphology, Fig. 17(a), Fig. 17(b), but
there is no obvious change compared with that heat-treated at
300°C, Fig. 17(c). That is in line with the research of many other
scholars. The following gradient temperature heat treatment of Al­
Si10Mg will not significantly differ in grain size [26,42]. Fig. 17(d)
shows the grain distribution of the heat-treated specimen at 330°C.
Compared with the morphology, the grains become longer and
coarser, the grain boundary area decreases, and the intergranular
bonding force decreases. In macroscopic mechanics, the tensile
strength decreases and the plasticity increases.
From the grain size distribution diagram shown in Fig. 18(a, b), we
know that the grain size is in the range of 3–72 µm. From Fig. 18(c), it
can be seen that the morphological specimens constructed along the
11
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
0° direction account for about 98.05% of the grains with a diameter of
fewer than 26 µm. The heat treatment reduces the grains with a
diameter of less than 26 µm. The percentage decreases to 97.03%,
96.96%, and 96.04% at annealing temperatures of 270°C, 300°C, and
330°C, respectively, and the proportion of grains larger than 26 µm
increases simultaneously. Therefore, it can be seen that after heat
treatment of the 0° sample, the grain diameter greater than 26 µm
increases significantly, and the grain diameter smaller than 26 µm
decreases slightly with increasing heat treatment temperature, the
percentage of grains larger than 26 µm in diameter increases.
Comparing the microstructure of the tensile cross-section of the
90°-as-built with the 90° heat-treated specimens, the as-built shows
obvious grain distribution with the preferred orientation of the
scanning trace. This phenomenon can also be seen in the heat-treated
specimen. However, with the increase of heat treatment temperature,
the traces of the melt channel gradually fade, and the number of
grains with the same orientation inside the melt channel is sig­
nificantly reduced. Similarly, the size of the columnar crystal increases
in the 0° direction, and the grain size and morphology changed after
heat treatment (as shown in Fig. (19)), inferring that the heat treat­
ment may have caused remelting and recrystallization of the grains.
For the specimens built at 90°, as shown in Fig. 20, the grain size
is 3–72 µm, and the proportion of crystal grains with a diameter of
26 µm or less is about 99.69%, and the balances after heat treatment
at 270°C, 300°C and 330°C are reduced to 99.32%, 99.06%, 98.97%. It
shows the same law with that of the 0° specimens.
The grain size detected for 0° specimens is the longitudinal section of
the columnar crystal, and the crystal grain size detected for 90° speci­
mens is the cross-section. The variation range of the small crystal grains
of 0° specimens is 96.04%− 98.05% (Fig. 18), and that of 90° specimens is
98.97%− 99.69% (Fig. 20). It can be judged that the temperature of heat
treatment influenced the morphology of columnar crystals.
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 18. Grain size distribution map of the specimens built along the 0° direction.
Fig. 19. EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) maps in three-dimensional views of SLMed AlSi10Mg. (a) 90°-As-built, (b) 90°-HT-270 °C-2 h, (c) 90°-HT-300 °C-2 h, (d) 90°-HT-330 °C-2 h.
According to Fig. 21, it can be observed that the proportion of
grains with a diameter of fewer than 26 µm is related to the building
angle, which is mainly manifested as less 0°, more 45° specimens,
and most 90° specimens. This trend is primarily because the de­
tection surface of the 0° specimen is the longitudinal section of the
columnar crystal, 90° is the cross-section of the columnar crystal,
and 45° is the oblique section.
Combining with the mechanical properties of the alloy and its
microstructure, we obtained the variation pattern of mechanical
properties with heat treatment. We can also find the variation pattern
of grain size with different heat treatment. These experimental results
confirm the existence of fine grain strengthening in the micro­
structure before heat treatment. Under the heat treatment conditions
described in this paper, the grain will grow, and the growth of the Si
phase can also prove that the coexisting solution strengthening in the
microstructure before heat treatment disappears.
The grain boundary evolution was also found to be associated with
the motion of the slip system. As shown in Fig. 22, the largest proportion
12
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
of "correlated" grain boundaries (LAGBS) with an orientation angle of
about 5° was found in each specimen, showing anisotropy. Furthermore,
this fraction increased dramatically as the heat treatment temperature
increase in As-built. The fraction of the grain boundaries with mis­
orientation angle around 45° was noticed a little high in 0° building
orientation specimen. However, lower in 45° building orientation spe­
cimen and finally was very flat between misorientation angles around
25°~45°. AlSi10Mg is FCC material, while a peak at 60° indicates the
presence of twinning [34,35]. As can be seen from Fig. 22, there is no
twinning in SLMed AlSi10Mg alloy. Heat treatment results in an increase
in 0°− 15° misorientation, Fig. 22(a)-(d), Fig. 22(e)-(h), Fig. 22(i)-(l).
In Fig. 23, we analyzed the 0°, 45°, 90° building orientation
specimens’ LAGBS. The more LAGBS, the higher dislocation density,
the more storage of distortion energy, the higher the grain hardness
strength, and the lower toughness. According to this theory, the
plastic properties of 90° specimens should be worse, which is con­
sistent with the increasing plastic properties of 90°, 45° and 0°
specimens shown in the tensile data.
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 20. Grain size distribution map of the specimens built along the 90° direction.
Fig. 21. Grain size distribution of as-built specimens built along different directions.
For as-built each orientation, with the increase of heat treatment
temperature, the LAGBS (0°~15°) gradually increases, and the more
LAGBS, the better plasticity. This is because even though the heat
treatment caused the increase in the percentage of LAGBS, disloca­
tion density increased. The heat treatment causes the fusion
strengthening of the eutectic Si phase initially distributed at the
grain boundaries of the α-Al matrix, which reduces its influence on
the grain dislocation motion, resulting in the softening of the α-Al
matrix and the reduction of both UTS and YS of the material.
4. Analysis and discussion
Based on the above phenomena and data, in the following we
analyze the cause of the difference in tensile properties and micro-
hardness of the SLMed AlSi10Mg specimens.
This paper's final results differ from those of other literature on
the anisotropic properties of the constitutive orientation and heat
treatment on additively manufactured parts. However, our results on
the tensile properties of SLM-formed AlSi10Mg are consistent.
Furthermore, the difference in the results may be due to the differ­
ence in process parameters. According to previous studies, the ten­
sile strength of SLMed AlSi10Mg without heat treatment is about
450 MPa, and the yield strength is about 280 MPa [36,37], which is
consistent with the results of our work (~460 MPa, ~260 MPa).
Many studies have shown two strengthening mechanisms for
selective laser melting formed AlSi10Mg alloy [38]. On the one hand,
The Si exists in the form of solid solution in the α-Al matrix, showing
a reliable solution strengthening mechanism, and on the other, the
formed structure has refined grains and thus offering a fine-grain
strengthening mechanism. Nevertheless, both the fine-grain
13
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
strengthening mechanism and the solid solution strengthening
mechanism will weaken or even disappear after heat treatment.
The Al-Si alloy particles are melted in the selective laser melting
process to reach equilibrium. The Si element is uniformly distributed
in the Al liquid, and the content can reach 7.6%, which is greater than
its maximum saturation of 1.65%. The molten pool is cooled at a rate
of about 106–108 K/s [39], which inhibits diffusion, segregation and
grain growth of alloying elements. The Si phase is supersaturated
and dissolved in the α-Al matrix and enriched in a small area to form
solid solution strengthening and improves the mechanical proper­
ties of the alloy. This coarsening of the Si particles upon providing
time and temperature is attributed to the coalescence of the parti­
cles and Ostwald ripening [40,41]. Ostwald ripening occurs by
atomic diffusion or coalescence，where two or more particles con­
solidate to make a more extensive particle mainly because the atoms
on the particle's surface are energetically more unstable than those
inside the particle [37].
For the Si phase, its enriched shape is related to the growth di­
rection and shape of the crystal grains. The cross-section of the
narrow columnar crystal axis is a grid with a length of 2–5 µm. The
cross-section of the equiaxed crystal and the narrow columnar
crystal is a grid with a diameter of 0.5–2 µm. After heat treatment,
the Si phase dissolves and solid solution strengthening fails，con­
sistent with Le Zhou et al.[6].
The mechanical properties of Al-Si alloys mainly depend on the
morphology and distribution of Si. The more uniform Si is dis­
tributed in the α-Al matrix, the more effectively the mechanical
properties of Al-Si alloys can be improved. The SEM image of the
morphology shows supersaturated precipitation. The distribution of
Si in the α-Al matrix is uniformly distributed in a grid shape, and the
properties are suitable. The SEM image of the heat treatment state
shows that Si is unevenly enriched. The grid-like Si distribution
disappears, indicating that larger Si particles exist in the α-Al matrix,
the maximum size can reach about 1 µm. The uneven distribution of
Si after segregation causes the mechanical properties of the alloy to
decrease because the strengthened phase eutectic Si dissolved. From
the first aspect that the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength
gradually decrease with increasing heat treatment temperature.
In addition, according to the theory of fine grain strengthening,
the Hall-Petch formula is used to describe the relationship between
grain size and material strength:
1/ 2
= 0 + kd (2)
In the formula, d is the crystal grain diameter of polycrystal,
which represents the friction force preventing dislocation slip, and k
is the influence coefficient of the orientation difference of adjacent
crystal grains on the movement of the dislocation. This formula
explains the correlation between the strength of the material and
the sum of the ideal single crystal yield strength and grain size
terms. The larger the grain size, the lower the strength, and the finer
the grains, the higher the strength. Because the refined grains will
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
Fig. 22. The statistical distribution of misorientation angle of each specimen.
Fig. 23. The statistical distribution of LAGBS of each specimen.
increase the number of grain boundaries and at the same time
produce a large number of Al-Si interfaces inside the grains, effec­
tively reducing movement between dislocations under external
force. This explains from a second aspect why the ultimate tensile
strength and yield strength gradually decrease with the increase of
heat treatment temperature.
There is also a particular eutectic strengthening mechanism in
AlSi10Mg. In the eutectic reaction, a network of Al-Si eutectic
structures will be precipitated to form many Al-Si interfaces, which
hinder the generation of dislocation movement, so the strength
14
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 895 (2022) 162665
increases. The heat treatment process will cause the Si phase to
segregate. Si precipitates from the eutectic structure. The eutectic
structure is reduced and the network Al-Si interface is greatly re­
duced and disappeared. The mechanism to prevent the movement of
dislocations no longer exists, resulting in strengthening failure, so
the resistance to the tensile strength limit is reduced and the plas­
ticity is enhanced. This explains from the third aspect why the ul­
timate tensile strength, micro-hardness and yield strength gradually
decrease with the increase of heat treatment temperature.
5. Conclusions
We studied the effects of heat treatment and construction or­
ientation on the SLMed AlSi10Mg alloy. The tensile properties, mi­
crostructure characteristics and texture of the AlSi10Mg alloy
fabricated by SLM were systematically studied. The following con­
clusions can be drawn:
1. The microstructure of the specimens was similar in three
building orientations. Scan traces, melt pools, columnar crystals,
equiaxed crystals, cellular dendrites, reticulated eutectic Si, and
enriched and grown Si particles after heat treatment can be ob­
served in the microstructure.
2. EBSD shows grain size has not significantly increased with heat
treatment, and an < 001 > orientation texture parallel to building
orientation can be found in specimen of different orientations.
However, the grains are not entirely parallel to the building or­
ientation but slightly deviate from it.
3. Tensile results of specimens with different orientations and heat
treatments show that the SLMed alloy is slightly anisotropic, and
its orientation angle size is inversely related to plasticity. Such
inverse relationship may be caused by different degrees of dis­
location pile-up in the horizontal and vertical directions because
C.G. Wang, J.X. Zhu, G.W. Wang et al.
of eutectic Si. Heat treatment will further weaken the anisotropy,
but it does not vanish.
4. Heat treatment of solid solution can lead to a small amount of Si
phase precipitate in the α-Al matrix. Fusion and enrichment of
eutectic Si leads to α-Al matrix softens, resulting in reduction in
strength, although LAGBS is improved. It indicates that the
strengthening effect of the α-Al matrix and the solid solution is
greater than that of LAGBS.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
C.G Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation,
Writing – original draft preparation, Writing – review & editing,
Formal analysis. J.X Zhu: Data curation, Writing - original draft
preparation, Writing – review & editing. G.W Wang: Supervision,
Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Y Qin: Conceptualization,
Supervision, Project administration. M.Y. Sun: Methodology,
Investigation, Supervision. J.L. Yang: Supervision, Investigation. X.F.
Shen: Lead investigation, Conceptualization, Funding acquisition,
review & editing, Supervision. S.K. Huang: Conceptualization,
Supervision, Project administration, Validation.
Data availability
Due to the sensitive nature of the questions asked in this study,
survey respondents were assured raw data would remain con­
fidential and would not be shared.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing fi­
nancial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NSAF (grant number U1930207) and
CAEP Foundation (grant number CX20210005).
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