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The use of lasers has increased in areas of science, engineering and medicine. Their advantages over the traditional methods of thermal application are their ability to localize thermal treatments, ability to deliver high power density and to complete thermal processes in extremely short time periods. During the irradiation of a material, only a portion of the laser beam energy is absorbed. If the absorbed energy is high enough, melting can occur. The ability to predict, thus control the melting process is an advantage to manufacturing processes such as laser welding, surface re-melting and alloying. Using analytical approaches that are already in existence, this research adapts a mathematical model to approximate temperature profiles as well as isothermal depths given a single laser pulse. In order to assess the error associated with the adapted model, laser irradiation experiments are carried out on CP titanium samples using a focal spot of 600 μm and nitrogen gas as the shielding gas at a flow rate of 5 l/min. The effects of some important laser processing parameters on the melt depth are discussed. The adapted model approximated that the melt depth increases with both increasing laser power and increasing pulse duration. Furthermore, the experimental results revealed that it is the combination of short pulses and a high laser power that yields melt zones that are relatively free of porosity, craters and cracking. Additionally, an assessment of the error associated with the adapted model revealed that the adapted model generally overestimates the experimental data with increasing laser pulse duration. At a combination of 0.1s and 1200W (representing a combination of short laser pulse and high laser power) the error of approximation was 59%. The error increased to 90% at a combination of laser parameters 5s and 600W (representing a combination of a long laser pulse and low laser power). It is recommended that future studies be undertaken to improve modelling accuracies for a wider range of laser processing parameters.

The focus of this research project was to determine experimentally the fatigue and fracture toughness characteristic, from a fracture mechanics perspective, of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy manufactured by Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Three build orientations are considered where a fatigue crack is grown parallel and two are grown perpendicular to the build orientation. The project then endeavours to generate a fracture mechanics based Paris equation from the fatigue crack growth rate results and together with the fracture toughness, fatigue life predictions may be determined based on crack propagation lifetimes. SLM is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique whereby an object is fabricated in a layerwise manner via the use of lasers, directly from a 3D CAD model. This process allows for the manufacture of complex designs in its net or near net shape form, which is not possible with conventional manufacturing techniques. There are minimal amounts of material wastage and it potentially eliminates post manufacture machining and processing costs. Ti- 6Al-4V is used in many applications where high strength at low density is required at moderate temperatures. Corrosion resistance qualities of the alloy are also considered for many applications. Some of the applications where this alloy is used include turbine engine components, aircraft structural components, aerospace fasteners, high-performance automotive parts, marine applications, medical implant devices and sports equipment. Due to the large use of the alloy in industry and with the potential benefits of manufacturing by SLM, there is a great need for investigating SLM Ti-6Al-4V as a viable alternative to conventional casting, forging and machining. There is limited literature covering the fatigue crack growth rate and fracture toughness of SLM Ti-6Al-4V and the effect of build orientation on these characteristics. However, it is clear, from the limited available literature that fatigue crack growth rate behaviour is affected by build orientation, and so this project investigates the effect of these orientations, and aims to contribute to understanding why these orientation effects occur. Since there is even less literature available on the fracture toughness of SLM Ti-6Al-4V with respect to build orientation, this project also endeavours to characterise orientation effects on fracture toughness, if any, and compares these with those of conventionally manufacture Ti-6Al-4V.