The un-uniform cells are aluminum grains. Aluminum grains grow eptaxially towards to the heat flow direction forming fan shaped melt pools during selective laser melting (SLM) process. Half of the grains in red indicate a preferential growth along the laser beam direction due to directional solidification. The grains in blue and green are those located at the melt pool boundaries or where the direction of heat flow with a deviation from the laser beam direction. Fine equiaxed grains nucleated at the melt pool boundary because of the high solidification rate. These complex grains comprise a beautiful fan shaped microstructure of 3D printed aluminum.
Submission Year:
2017-18
Photographer's affiliation:
Postdoc
Academic areas:
Smith Engineering
Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs
Art of Research categories:
Invisible discoveries
Photo:
Categories:
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Smith Engineering
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
School of Graduate Studies
Interdisciplinary research in materials, computational analytics and human-machine interactions
Materials Discovery and Molecular Design
Location of photograph:
Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory, Queen's University
Photographer's name:
Hong Qin
Display Photographers Affiltion + Faculty or Department:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Mechanical and Materials Engineering