Inhomogeneous Microstructure due to Non-Uniform Solidification Rate in NiTi Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) Structures Fabricated via Laser Powder Bed Fusion

In recent times, interest in the fabrication of porous NiTi structures have grown significantly. Porous structures have remarkable potential to be used in the areas of tissue engineering, impact absorption, and fluid permeability. However, fabrication of NiTi structures poses challenges such as poor machinability, high work hardening, and inherent springback effects, which render them difficult to tackle through conventional manufacturing routes. Additive manufacturing (AM) can alleviate the aforementioned issues associated with NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs). In addition, this technology can be employed for producing metallic scaffolds and porous structures of complex architectural details. Recently, a class of minimal surface topologies, known as triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures has emerged as an attractive configuration for building architected constructs. Very little work can be found in the literature addressing the fabrication of NiTi TPMS structures and investigating their behaviors. The complex geometries of these structures may influence the dynamics of the melt pool in beam-based AM processes as well as the solidification rate within different regions of a product, thereby affecting the microstructures of fabricated parts. An inhomogeneity in microstructures of fabricated parts was observed, which motivated a detailed examination of these structures. The novelty of the present work lies in studying the influence of geometries of NiTi TPMS lattices along with laser process parameters.