Phase-separation-driven cracking in additive manufacturing of Ni-Cu alloy systems

This study investigates the cracking mechanism in additive manufacturing of Ni-Cu multi-material combinations using operando X-ray diffraction and imaging experiments during laser powder-bed fusion (L-PBF) of CuCrZr and IN625. It is shown that liquid immiscibility between the two alloy systems stems from the interaction between Cu and the alloying elements in IN625, causing both Cu-rich and Ni-rich liquids to form with different freezing ranges. Consequently, solidification cracking takes place due to the large solidification range where the Ni-rich solid and Cu-rich liquid co-exist. Guided by thermodynamic calculations, it was identified that the highest crack susceptibility occurs between 20 and 40 wt% CuCrZr-IN625, which was further validated by printing mixtures of the two alloys in different ratios. Operando X-ray imaging and scanning electron microscopy characterization revealed that the cracking occurred during the terminal stage of solidification. It was observed that the columnar grains of the Ni-rich primary solid separate into cracks, where Cu-rich liquid regions persist over a wide temperature range as the solidification of these regions begin significantly later. It was concluded that the mechanism of cracking explained in this study could be extended to other Cu-Ni alloy combinations containing elements that induce immiscibility when mixed with Cu during fusion-based processing methods.