Monitoring residual strain relaxation and preferred grain orientation of additively manufactured Inconel 625 by in-situ neutron imaging

Tremsin, A. S.*; Gao, Y.*; Makinde, A.*; Bilheux, H. Z.*; Bilheux, J. C.*; An, K.*; Shinohara, Takenao   ; Oikawa, Kenichi   

Microstructures produced by Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques determine many characteristics of components where these materials are used. Residual stress and texture are among those characteristics, which need to be optimized. In this study, we employ energy-resolved neutron imaging to investigate, non-destructively, the uniformity of texture and to map the distribution of strain due to residual stress in Inconel 625 samples. The samples used in this study were printed by a direct metal laser melting additive manufacturing technique. Strain and texture variation are measured at room temperature as well as their changes during annealing at 700C and 875C in a vacuum furnace. The uniformity of crystalline plane distribution, from which texture can be inferred, is imaged with sub-mm spatial resolution for the entire sample area.