Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Effect of laser shock peening on microstructure and mechanical properties

of TiC strengthened inconel 625 alloy processed by selective laser melting
Lan Chen a, Pengfei Gu a, Tong Ge a, Yuzhou Sun a, Lin Li b, Xudong Ren a, *
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
b
School of Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A bulk nano-TiC particle reinforced Inconel 625 alloy (TiC/IN625) was manufactured using selective laser
Selective laser melting melting. The effect of post treatment on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the TiC/
IN625 alloy IN625 alloy was investigated by using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron
Heat treatment
microscope, X-ray diffraction, microhardness tests, and uniaxial tension tests. The results demonstrated that heat
Laser shock peening
Microstructure
treatment brought uniformly dispersed γ′ and γ′ ’ phases, coarse MC carbides, and fine secondary carbides to the
Mechanical properties TiC/IN625 samples. After heat treatment followed by laser shock peening, high-density dislocations and some
nanoscale grains were generated in the subsurface of the TiC/IN625 sample. The tensile residual stresses were
transformed into compressive residual stresses by laser shock peening. In the laser shock peened TiC/IN625
sample, relatively higher surface microhardness, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation were observed
compared to the as-built and heat-treated samples. Furthermore, a synergistic strengthening mechanism,
involving precipitation strengthening, grain refinement, and dislocation strengthening, was clearly revealed.

1. Introduction
Selective laser melting (SLM), as an efficient additive manufacturing
technique, has become one of the most popular ways to process various
metal alloys [1,2]. High geometrical freedom, manufacturing of parts
with remarkably low porosity, and printing of customized parts with
complex structure expand the SLM applications in the biomedical,
aerospace, and automotive fields [3–7]. However, during the SLM pro­
cess, high temperature gradients promote the formation of coarse
columnar grains that grow along the build direction. These undesirable
microstructures lead to anisotropic mechanical properties [8]. Lee et al.
[9] investigated the correlation between the microstructure and me­
chanical anisotropy of SLM CoCr alloy. The mechanical anisotropy was
attributed to the formation of a strong <100> texture along the build
direction. Thijs et al. [10] found that both the morphological and crys­
tallographic texture contributed to yield strength anisotropy in SLM
processed Ta alloy. In a study by Wysocki et al. [11], the ultimate tensile
strength and elongation of SLM processed pure titanium demonstrated
high anisotropy, although the determined mechanical properties
exceeded those found in several traditionally processed titanium alloys.
High heat gradient is produced in the molten pool due to the extremely
fast cooling rate during SLM [12]. In the process of cooling and solidi­
fication, the materials around the molten pool restrict each other,
leading to plastic deformation and thermal residual stress, which may
lead to cracks, deformation and so on [13,14]. Vrancken et al. [15]
studied SLM Ti6Al4V parts and found that the residual stress was mainly
oriented along the build direction, affecting the anisotropic behavior of
the part. Similar results were found in other studies [16,17].
In order to solve such problems, many scholars have focused on
optimizing the SLM process parameters. Prashanth et al. [18] studied
the effect of SLM process parameters, such as hatch styles, contour, and
base plate heating, on the mechanical anisotropy of SLM processed
Al-12Si parts. It was found that isotropic samples could be produced by
changing the hatch style without altering the contour. Moat et al. [19]
systematically optimized SLM process parameters, such as laser pulse
length and duty cycle, to eliminate the tensile residual stress in Inconel
718 alloy. Nevertheless, this caused a decrease in the density of the
produced SLM parts, which significantly affected their mechanical
properties. Post-processing is also one of the effective methods for
eliminating residual stress and forming a uniform microstructure. Tong
et al. [20] used heat treatment to post treat the FeCrCoMnNi
high-entropy alloy. It was found that, after heat treatment, the dendritic

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: renxd@ujs.edu.cn (X. Ren).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2022.142610
Received 13 May 2021; Received in revised form 2 January 2022; Accepted 3 January 2022
Available online 6 January 2022
0921-5093/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
L. Chen et al.
structures of the SLM sample evolved into uniform recrystallized grains,
and the residual stress in the SLM sample was released. Wei et al. [21]
proposed that laser remelting was a suitable post-treatment for elimi­
nating tensile residual stress in SLM Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy. AlMangour et al.
[22] demonstrated that hot isostatic pressing could eliminate the major
drawbacks of SLM processed TiB2/316L stainless steel composites and
produce many uniform recrystallized structures. In addition, Almangour
et al. [23] proposed that shot peening could induce compressive residual
stresses and grain refinement in SLM processed 17-4 stainless steel.
Inconel 625 alloy (IN625) is a nickel-based superalloy with Cr, Mo,
and Nb as the main strengthening elements. IN625 exhibits solution
hardening and precipitation hardening. Many intermetallic phases (γ"
[Ni3Nb]) and carbides (MC, M6C and M23C6) can precipitate after long-
time annealing during 550–750 ◦ C [24–26]. Due to the high cooling rate
of SLM, the γ’’ phases cannot fully precipitate from the γ matrix [24].
However, brittle Laves phases are easily formed [27,28]. Therefore, heat
treatment is a commonly used means to modify the microstructure and
mechanical properties of SLM nickel alloys. Zhang et al. [29] studied the
effects of different heat treatment methods on the microstructure and
mechanical properties of nickel-based composites. The found the
microhardness and tensile strength of the heat-treated composites were
significantly increased.
Laser shock peening (LSP) is a promising surface modification
technique and has many distinct advantages, such as refining coarse
grains into nanoscale grains [30–32], inducing a deep compressive re­
sidual stress and facilitating better control of surface roughness [33–35].
Large plastic deformation generates a compressive residual stress layer
of certain depth, which extends from the surface to a depth of 2 mm,
depending on laser energy density and the type of material. Recently,
the development of SLM has allowed better view of the microstructural
evolution and changes in mechanical properties of SLM processed parts
during the LSP. Chen et al. [36] investigated the effect of LSP on the
microstructure and high-temperature oxidation properties of SLM pro­
cessed nickel-based alloy. They pointed out that LSP could be deemed as
an effective surface strengthening way to improve the high temperature
oxidation of SLM nickel-based alloy.
Although there are currently some literatures that separately have
studied the effects of laser shock peening and heat treatment on nickel-
based alloy, they have not studied the combined effects of these two
post-treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties of
nickel-based alloy. In the present study, nano-TiC particles were chosen
as the reinforced particles. TiC possesses high hardness, superior wear
resistance, and good wettability with molten metals. In addition, it ex­
hibits high chemical stability in nickel alloys, which can prevent or
reduce the adverse reaction between the TiC particles and the matrix.
The main aim of this study was to understand the combined effect of
heat treatment and LSP on the microstructure and mechanical behavior
of SLM processed nano-TiC particle reinforced Inconel 625 alloy (TiC/
IN625). The tensile properties, residual stress and microhardness dis­
tribution along depth direction were measured in TiC/IN625 samples.
The microstructural evolution of nanocomposites was also examined
and discussed. The underlying strengthening mechanisms of post
treatments on TiC/IN625 alloy were proposed and systematically
analyzed.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample preparation
The IN625 powder used in this study was produced by Sandvik
Table 1
Chemical composition of IN625 powder.
Elements Cr Mo Nb Fe Co Ti
Percent (wt.%) 21.84 9.44 3.89 4.15 0.004 0.0045
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Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610
Osprey (Neath, UK). Table 1 lists the chemical composition of the IN625.
Spherical IN625 powder particles with sizes of ~10–50 μm (Fig. 1). The
TiC powder used in this study was supplied by Sigma Aldrich (UK). The
average particle size of the TiC used in this study was 40 nm (Fig. 1). In
order to uniformly mix the 4 wt% TiC and IN625 powder, an apparatus
(Pulverisette 6 planetary mono-mill, Fritsch, Germany) was employed to
prepare the feedstock under a mixing speed of 200 rounds per minute. As
it can be seen in Fig. 1, the TiC powders were uniformly coated on the
IN625 powder surface.
The manufacturing of TiC/IN625 alloy was performed with an SLM
machine (iSLM 150, ZhongRui, China) equipped with a YLR-500 ytter­
bium fiber laser (Fig. 2(a)). A closed environment filled with argon as a
shielding gas was used to prevent oxidation and contamination during
SLM. A stainless-steel substrate was installed prior to performing SLM.
The stainless-steel substrate was preheated to 100 ◦ C in order to mini­
mize residual stress generated during printing. The optimal processing
parameters were as follows: laser power of 200 W, layer thickness of 30
μm, laser speed of 400 mm/s, and hatch spacing of 80 μm. The build
direction (BD) was along the Z-axis and the deposited layer was parallel
to the X–Y plane. The adjacent two layers were rotated by 67◦ (Fig. 2
(b)). Samples were processed into rectangle workpieces with a size of 10
mm × 10 mm × 3 mm (length × width × thickness). The tensile samples
were processed directly by SLM, and the detailed dimensions are pre­
sented in Fig. 2(d).
2.2. Heat treatment and LSP
All samples were solution-treated at 1070 ◦ C for 1 h, followed by
water quenching to room temperature. Then, the samples were double-
aged. They were first held at 720 ◦ C for 8 h, then cooled to 620 ◦ C, held
at 620 ◦ C for 18 h, and finally cooled to room temperature by air.
After heat treatment, the samples were subjected to LSP treatment.
LSP experiments were conducted using a Q-switched Nd: YAG (GAIA-R,
France Thales Co., Ltd) laser equipment with a wavelength of 1064 nm,
a pulse width of 10 ns, and a working frequency of 5 Hz. The flowing
water with a thickness of approximately 1.5 mm was chosen as the
absorbing layer. The 3 M professional aluminum foil with a thickness of
0.12 mm was employed as an absorbing layer to protect the samples’
surface from the thermal effect. A schematic diagram of LSP is illustrated
in Fig. 2(c). The LSP process parameters were set as follows: laser energy
of 7 J, laser spot diameter of 2.6 mm, and overlap ratio of 50%. The
LSPed region and the scanning strategy are illustrated in Fig. 2(d). Three
types of samples were tested, namely, the as-built (AB), heat-treated
(HT), and LSP after heat treatment (HT + LSP).
2.3. Microstructure observation
To observe the cross-sectional microstructure, the sample was cut
along the cross-sections. After mounting, grinding and polishing, sam­
ples were etched at room temperature using a solution (HCl: HNO3: H2O
= 3:1:2) for approximately 50 s. Optical microscope (OM) (VK-X250,
Keyence, Japan) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) (JSM-7800F,
JEOL, Japan) were conducted to observe the microstructural
morphology.
The microstructure on the surface of samples was characterized via a
transmission electron microscope (TEM) (JEM-2100, Keyence, Japan).
0.5-mm thick thin foils were obtained from the surface layer. Subse­
quently, a disc with a diameter of 3 mm was punched out from the
thinned sample. A sample with thickness of approximately 100 nm was
prepared by double jet electropolishing in a solution of 90 vol% C2H5OH
Si Mn Cu Al O N Ni
0.11 0.024 0.037 0.016 0.0393 0.0074 Bal.
L. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610

Fig. 1. (a) SEM of the mixed TiC/IN625 powders with partial enlarge as (b); (c) EDS element maps of the mixed TiC/IN625 powders.

Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of (a) SLM process; (b) scanning strategy and build direction used to build samples; (c) LSP process; (d) dimensions of tensile sample
showing the LSPed region, the starting point and the ending point of LSP process.

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L. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610

and 10 vol% HClO4 solution at − 30 ◦ C. obtained.

3. Results and discussion

2.4. Mechanical testing
3.1. Microstructure
A micro-Vickers tester (FM-800, Future-tech, Japan) was used to
measure the cross-sectional microhardness of each sample. The load and 3.1.1. Microstructure of AB sample
holding time were 100 g and 15 s, respectively. The micro-hardness was Layer-by-layer superposition molten pools can be observed along the
measured at 30 μm intervals, and for each depth, the average micro­ build direction in the AB sample (Fig. 3(a)). Since the largest tempera­
hardness value was obtained as the average of five measurements. ture gradient is along the build direction during SLM process, typical
Tensile tests were conducted on a universal testing machine columnar grains are observed along this direction (Fig. 3(a)). SEM mi­
(MTS809, MTS Systems Corporation, USA) at a nominal strain rate of 2 crographs of the YZ-plane (Fig. 3(b)) are also generated in order to
× 10− 4/s at room temperature. The tensile samples are in dog-bone plate reveal the microstructure at a higher magnification. The bowl-shaped
shape with a gage dimension of 50 × 16 × 2.8 mm. An extensometer was molten pool boundary (MPB) is clearly visible. The average thickness
used to measure directly the tensile strain, and a minimum of three tests of the molten pool is approximately 30 μm, which corresponds to the
were performed for each group. Tensile fracture morphologies were also layer thickness of SLM. Two dendritic structures (i.e., cellular structures
observed using SEM. and columnar structures) are formed in the AB samples. It is worth
The residual stress along the depth direction in all samples was noting that dendritic structures grow nearly perpendicular to the build
measured with an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) (x-350A, AST-X, China) direction due to the temperature gradient effect. After the powder has
with Cr-Kα target radiation. X-ray tube voltage and current were 22.0 kV been irradiated with a high-energy laser, it experiences fast local melting
and 6.0 mA, respectively. The X-ray beam diameter was 1 mm. The re­ and solidification. When the liquid metal solidifies, most of the heat
sidual stress calculation of the sample was using the sin2ψ method, dissipates towards to the negative build direction. Therefore, the heat
where ψ was a tilting angle between the normal to the surface and the flux direction forces the growth of dendrites to be almost parallel to the
normal to the diffraction plane. Due to the consideration that the tem­ build direction [37,38].
peratures and restrained conditions of the surface vary with angles from Figs. 3(c) and (d) demonstrate the fine structures of the AB sample at
the laser scanning direction, the tilting angle ψ was set to be 0◦ , 25◦ , 35◦ a high magnification. The diameter of the cellular structures is
and 45◦ . The residual stress on the (220) plane was detected with
scanning angle 2θ ranging from 124◦ to 133◦ at 0.1◦ s− 1 scanning speed.
The Bragg angle of (220) plane was approximately 128.5◦ . Residual Table 2
stresses determined using XRD were arithmetic average stresses in a The element compositions (wt. %) corresponding to the points marked in Figs. 3
volume of material defined by the irradiated area and the depth of and 5.
penetration. Electro-polishing was used as the material removal method Points C Nb Mo Ti Cr Fe Ni
to measure the residual stress within the samples. Electro-polishing was P1 4.12 19.89 6.22 1.95 16.76 3.00 48.06
performed in a solution of 3.5% saturated sodium chloride solution, and P2 - 20.53 9.30 1.82 17.74 3.08 47.53
material removal was controlled by the applied voltage 10 V and current P3 - - 12.42 3.55 19.55 4.27 60.21
0.2 A. The polished region was a local section. The area surrounding the P4 - - 13.47 5.03 20.01 4.87 56.62
P5 40.13 15.69 9.39 28.28 2.03 0.64 3.84
polished region was masked to maintain uniformity and consistency P6 39.82 17.45 9.12 27.21 2.12 0.43 3.85
during the material removal. To ensure the stability of the results, three P7 47.92 35.75 3.16 9.47 1.12 0.39 2.19
samples were measured under the same condition. Measurements were P8 46.38 39.06 6.08 2.19 2.31 1.09 2.89
repeated five times of each measurement point, and average values were

Fig. 3. OM (a) and SEM (b) observation of the AB sample on the vertical surface (YZ-plane); (c) and (d) the enlarged view of C and D in (b), respectively.

4
L. Chen et al.
approximately ~0.5 μm (Fig. 3(c)). The spacing between columnar
structures is approximately between 0.5 and 1 μm (Fig. 3(d)). As it can
be seen in Figs. 3(c) and (d), many irregular solids are precipitated in the
interdendritic regions. Compared with the dark matrix (P3 and P4 in
Table 2), these white blocky precipitates contain more Nb (P1 and P2 in
Table 2). It is inferred that these are Laves phases that are easily formed
in nickel-based alloys. Additionally, according to EDS, a large number of
white particles are Nb- and Ti-rich carbides (P5 and P6 in Table 2),
which are distributed in the interdendritic regions. From the isothermal
sections of the Ni–Nb–C equilibrium diagram [39], it can be observed
that the concentration of Nb and C in the molten pool is high enough to
form NbC carbides in the interdendritic region through the eutectic re­
action. In addition, at high temperature, the added TiC is decomposed
into Ti and C elements. The sharp increase in the C content can interact
with Nb and Ti to promote the formation of MC (M = Nb, Ti) carbides. It
is known that Laves phase is a brittle phase that cannot accommodate
large plastic deformation and is prone to fracture failure. Moreover,
Laves phase leads to a large amount of Nb segregation, while Nb is the
main element for the formation of the γ′ and γ′′ strengthening phases
[37,40,41]. Therefore, a proper heat treatment can dissolve the Laves
phase, thereby releasing Nb to form strengthening phases γ′ and γ′′ .
Fig. 4 shows the bright field TEM images of the AB sample. In Fig. 4
(a), fine cellular structures with a size of 500 nm can be observed. Due to
the high temperature gradient and rapid solidification during SLM, re­
sidual stress is accumulated gradually, resulting in high-density dislo­
cation structures in the AB samples. It can be seen in Fig. 4(a) that a large
number of dislocation lines form dislocation-network structures in the
matrix region. As it can be observed in Fig. 4(b), irregular-shaped phases
are precipitated along the intergranular boundaries. These precipitates
act as barriers to impede dislocation movement, and numerous dislo­
cation lines are aggregated near these precipitates. Moreover, the sig­
nificant mismatch between the coefficient of thermal expansion of the
IN625 matrix and the precipitates particles induce a large amount of
dislocations lines around the precipitates (Fig. 4(b)).
3.1.2. Microstructure of HT samples
Compared with the AB sample (Fig. 3(a)), it is found that the
columnar grains in TiC/IN625 maintain the preferred growth direction
after heat treatment, and the size of the columnar grains does not change
significantly (Fig. 5(a)). In the study by Li et al. [42], some recrystallized
grains were formed in a IN625 sample after solution treatment at 980 ◦ C.
In the present study, no recrystallized grains appear in Fig. 5(a), indi­
cating that 1070 ◦ C is not enough for TiC/IN625 to recrystallize. It can
be seen in Fig. 5(a) that, after heat treatment, the MPBs in the YZ-plane
almost disappear. Moreover, the dendritic structures are fragmented,
and many white particles are uniformly dispersed in the grains (Fig. 5
(b)). The HT samples exhibit well-defined grain boundaries, which are
not as distinct in the AB samples (Fig. 5(b)). At a high magnification
(Fig. 5(b)), it can be observed that the interdendritic chainlike Laves
Fig. 4. TEM observation from the AB sample: (a) cellular structure with dislocation structures; (b) irregular-shaped phases with dislocation structures.
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Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610
phases almost dissolve into the matrix and release a large amount of Nb
and Ti. Compared to Figs. 3(c) and (d), the number of fine MC carbides
in Fig. 5(c) are significantly increased. In addition, many coarse particles
appear after heat treatment (Fig. 5(c)), and these are particles are found
to be carbides rich in Nb and Ti. Since the dissolution temperature of MC
carbides (~1200 ◦ C) is higher than the solution heat treatment tem­
perature (1070 ◦ C), some of the original fine carbides appear coarse
[43]. Meanwhile, a large number of fine secondary carbides are also
observed in the matrix. Many disc-like γ′′ phases can be observed near
the grain boundary region (Fig. 5(d)).
After heat treatment, a large amount of thermal stress is released,
and dislocations structures similar to those of the AB samples disappear
(Fig. 6(a)). Clear grain boundaries can be seen in Fig. 6(b). The TEM
images with the corresponding SAD pattern reveal uniformly distributed
γ ′′ and γ′ precipitates. The γ′ phase precipitates exhibit a spheroidal
shape with dot-like reflections, while the γ ′′ phase precipitates are
elliptical with elongated reflections (Fig. 6(b)). The (100), (010), and
(110) superlattice reflections are due to the γ′ and γ ′′ phases, whereas the
(1 1/2 0) and (1/2 1 0) reflections belong to the γ ′′ phase alone (Fig. 6
(c)). The SAD patterns are similar to other TEM studies in the literature
[29,44,45].
3.1.3. Microstructure of HT + LSP samples
OM images presented in Fig. 7 reveal the main microstructure of HT
+ LSP sample. Different plastic deformation layers are generated after
LSP, including a severe plastic deformation (SPD) layer, a minor plastic
deformation (MPD) layer, and a strain-free matrix (Fig. 7(a)). It is found
that the thickness of the SPD layer and the MPD layer is about 170 μm
and 140 μm, respectively. In the SPD layer, many equiaxed refined
grains can be identified (Fig. 7(b)), while in the MPD layer, some refined
columnar grains with equiaxed refined grains appear (Fig. 7(c)). Due to
low plastic strain, the microstructures away from the SPD layer main­
tained their original grain size and growth direction (Fig. 7(d)).
TEM images of the subsurface microstructure of the HT + LSP sample
are shown in Fig. 8. Many nanoscale grains are generated by LSP and the
width of nanoscale grains is less than 100 nm (Fig. 8(a)). The corre­
sponding SAD pattern has a substantially continuous diffraction ring,
which indicates that their crystallographic orientations are random.
Several previous studies on titanium-, magnesium-, and nickel-alloys
have shown that LSP can induce sample surface nanocrystallization
under appropriate conditions [31,32,46,47]. These nanoscale grains
induced by ultrahigh-strain-rate plastic deformation can cause a signif­
icant surface hardening effect. A large number of dislocation lines are
distributed in the grain (Fig. 8(b)). High-density dislocation structures
are main contributors to the formation of dislocation walls, dislocation
cells, and fine grains, which further improve the stability of the material
strengthening effect. During LSP, the severe plastic deformation pro­
moted the formation of a large number of dislocations. These disloca­
tions further refine coarse grains, forming sub-grains, and achieving
L. Chen et al.
Fig. 5. OM (a) and SEM (b) observation of the HT sample on the vertical surface (YZ-plane); (c) and (d) are the enlarged view of C in (b) and D in (c), respectively.
Fig. 6. TEM observations from the HT sample: (a) bright field image; (b) the γ′ and γ′′ precipitation with the corresponding SAD pattern (c).
grain refinement.
3.2. Mechanical properties
3.2.1. Microhardness
Fig. 9(a) compares the surface hardness under the three different
processing conditions. The average surface microhardness of the AB
sample is approximately 440 HV. After heat treatment, it is increased by
19.5% reaching 526 HV, due to precipitation strengthening. After LSP is
applied, the surface hardness is further increased to 581 HV, which is
improved by 10.5% compared to that of the HT sample. Therefore, the
LSP treatment can increase the surface hardness, which agrees well with
the existing literature [48,49]. Fig. 9(b) presents the in-depth hardness
distribution in the HT + LSP sample. A gradient in the microhardness
along the depth direction is visible for the HT + LSP sample, and the
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Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610
microhardness on the surface is higher than that in the inner part. The
thickness of the HT + LSP sample hardened layer is approximately 300
μm. The synergistic effect of ultrafine grains and high-density disloca­
tion structures results in the improvement in the microhardness of HT +
LSP sample.
3.2.2. Residual stress
Fig. 10 shows the residual stress along depth direction under three
different processing conditions. Tensile residual stress is confirmed to
exist in the surface layer of the AB sample, which is attributed to high-
temperature gradients and rapid cooling during SLM, and the tensile
residual stress value is approximately 150 MPa. Heat treatment is an
effective method to relieve residual stresses. After heat treatment, the
thermal effect commences, and thermal relaxation of the stresses occurs.
In the HT samples, the residual stress is close to zero (Fig. 10). According
L. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610

Fig. 7. (a) OM image of the cross-section microstructure of the HT + LSP sample; (b)–(d) the enlarged view of B, C, and D in (a), respectively.

Fig. 8. TEM observation from the HT + LSP sample: (a) nano-grains; (b) dislocation structure.

to the Zener-Wert-Avrami function, the stress relaxation can be constant, and ΔH is the activation enthalpy of the relaxation process.
expressed by Ref. [50]: According to Eqs. (1) and (2), the residual stress decreases as the heat
treatment temperature Ta and heat treatment duration ta increase.
σ RS
= exp[ − (Ata )m ] (1) Similar results were reported by Deng et al. [50]. After LSP, dislocations
σ RS
0 pile up near the sub-grain boundaries, which can cause lattice distortion.
[ ] It is believed that lattice distortion may result in an increase in the in­
ΔH
A = Bexp − (2) ternal energy and microscopic stress of the system, which may be a
KTa
reason for introducing a certain amount of residual compressive stress.
As it can be seen in Fig. 10, a compressive residual stress layer is
where σ 0RS and σ RS are the initial residual stress and residual stress after
generated with the affected depth being more than 300 μm. The
heat treatment, respectively, Ta is the heat treatment temperature, ta is
maximum values of the compressive residual stress of HT + LSP sample
the heat treatment duration, B is a constant, k is the Boltzmann’s

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L. Chen et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610

Fig. 9. (A) Surface microhardness under three different processing conditions; (b) microhardness along depth direction after LSP treatment.

the HT + LSP sample are 784 MPa, 1517 MPa and 44.5%, respectively,
which are 22.3%, 26.0% and 3.7% larger than those of the AB samples,
respectively. Compared with the GH4169 Alloy [51], both yield strength
and ultimate tensile strength of the TiC/IN625 sample in this study are
improved, but the elongation is lower by 5.9%. The ultimate tensile
strength of the TiC/IN625 sample in this study is 27.3% lower than
MP35 N alloy, but the elongation is much higher than MP35 N alloy
[52]. A good combination of tensile strength and elongation has been
also found for additive manufactured Ti6Al4V alloy treated with LSP
[53,54]. It is pointed out that the main cause of this phenomenon is
grain refinement.
The fracture surfaces of the AB, HT, and HT + LSP samples are shown
in Fig. 12. As it can be seen in Fig. 12(a1), some pores and cracks can be
seen. Relatively smooth prior particle boundaries (PPBs) are distributed
everywhere in the AB samples, indicating that some of the unmelted
particles are detached by external loads. At a high magnification (Fig. 12
(a2)), many unmelted particles are observed in the large holes, which
can function as the nucleation site for crack formation (Fig. 12(a2)).
These defects are primarily responsible for the early fracture and rela­
Fig. 10. Residual stress along depth direction under three different process­
tively low tensile strength of the AB samples (Fig. 11). In Fig. 12(a3),
ing conditions.
many dimples along the columnar dendrites are observed, indicating a
transgranular fracture mode in the AB sample. As it can be seen in Fig. 3
is 254 MPa. It is verified that LSP can effectively heal the destructive
(d), many Laves phases are precipitated in the columnar dendrites.
residual thermal stress.
During tensile loading, these fragile Laves phases always act as weak­
ened phases since they provide a favorable location for the initiation of
3.2.3. Tensile properties
micro voids, which promote the growth of cracks along the interfaces. It
Fig. 11(a) demonstrates the typical stress-strain curves of all samples.
is worth noting that the dimple size (<1 μm) is smaller than that ob­
The ultimate tensile strength and elongation values are summarized in
tained under conventional techniques. Since the average size of the
Fig. 11(b). The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the AB
dimples is similar to that of the AB sample cellular structures (Fig. 3(c)),
sample is 641 MPa and 1204 MPa, respectively. The elongation of the AB
it can be inferred that the refined cellular structures affect the nucleation
sample is 42.9%. After heat treatment, the yield strength and ultimate
and growth of micro-voids.
tensile strength is increased to 769 MPa and 1435 MPa, respectively,
After heat treatment, the number of cracks, pores, and PPBs is
while the elongation is slightly decreased to 40.6%. The same tendency
significantly reduced (Fig. 12(b1)). A large number of dimples accom­
has been also reported for an SLM processed WC/Inconel 718 composite
panied with cleavage steps can be observed in Fig. 12(b1) and (b2),
with the same heat treatment method [29]. However, after LSP, both the
indicating mixed ductile and brittle fractures. The occurrence of brittle
ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the HT + LSP sample are
fractures and cracks can be attributed to the precipitation of the
increased. The yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation of
strengthening phase. After LSP, the fracture surface displays rough riffle

Fig. 11. (A) Stress–strain curves and (b) comparison of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation (E) of all samples.

8
L. Chen et al.
Fig. 12. SEM images of tensile fracture morphologies: (a1)-(a3) AB sample; (b1)-(b3) HT sample and (c1)-(c3) HT + LSP sample.
shapes with less defects (Fig. 12(c1)). Uniformly distributed dimples
(Fig. 12(c1)) and a large number of tearing ridges (Fig. 12(c2)) appear
on the fracture surface of the LSP samples, indicating that ductile frac­
ture is dominant in the tensile test. By comparing Fig. 12(c3) to (b3), it
can be found that the dimples become larger and deeper after LSP. Large
and deep dimples uniformly distribute on the fracture surface indicate
good ductility [53,55], therefore the elongation of the sample after LSP
is increased (Fig. 11).
3.3. Strengthening mechanisms
As illustrated in Fig. 13, the high-energy laser quickly melts the
powder to form a micro-melt pool. After the laser is removed, the molten
pool cools and solidifies. A large amount of heat flow gets dissipated to
the substrate along the build direction, forming a large temperature
gradient. Based on the metal solidification theory, large thermal
Fig. 13. Schematic illustration of the dendritic structure in the AB sample.
9
Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610
gradient and high cooling rate produce dendritic structures. Due to the
large temperature gradient in the build direction, columnar dendrites
are formed on the YZ-plane passing through multiple layers (Figs. 3(b)
and Fig. 13). The refractory solutes segregate easily in the grain
boundaries or interdendritic regions, leading to the formation of Laves
phase (Figs. 3(d) and Fig. 13). These coarse Laves phases easily lead to
the development of stress concentration and become the initiation sites
of cracks. During tensile testing, fracture occurs easily along the dendrite
direction (Fig. 12(a3)).
The particularity of the SLM forming method results in the formation
of “layer-layer” and “track-track” molten pool boundaries (MPBs) in AB
samples (Figs. 3(a) and Fig. 13). As reported by Wen et al. [56], several
sharp angle areas can be formed between MPBs, which, under loading
conditions, can serve as crack initiation sites. They also revealed that the
bonding between molten pools is weak. During tensile testing, cracks
initiate from the “track–track” MPBs. As the external load increases, the
L. Chen et al.
Fig. 14. Schematic of the major microstructure modifications in the TiC/IN625 samples fabricated by SLM at different conditions.
cracks expand rapidly along the “track–track” MPBs, forming cleavage
steps. Since the MPBs are almost diminished (Figs. 5(a) and Fig. 14) after
heat treatment, the number of crack initiators is reduced, and the ulti­
mate tensile strength is increased.
It is well known that Inconel 625 is mainly strengthened by pre­
cipitates. The misfits between the precipitates with the matrix are about
0.4% [57,58]. Strengthening from precipitates is caused by the inter­
action between precipitates and dislocations, which can be explained by
the particle shear mechanism (Eq. (3)) and the Orowan looping mech­
anism (Eq. (4)) [59].
⎛ ( )1/2 ⎞1/2
2 high strength. According to the Bailey-Hirsch relationship [60]:
(γ )3/2 ⎜4f 3 r0 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
Δτ S = 0 ⎜ ⎟
b ⎝ πT ⎠
( )
Gb 1 L
Δτ O = 1+ ln
4πL 1+ν 2b
where, ΔτS is the shear stress, ΔτO is the stress from the Orowan looping,
γ 0 is the reverse domain boundary energy per unit area, b is the Burgers
vector, f is the volume fraction, r0 is the average particle size, T is the
dislocation line tension, G is the shear modulus, L is the mean particle
spacing, and υ is the Poisson ratio. Heat treatment is also capable of
inducing the precipitation of coarse MC phases and fine secondary
carbides (Figs. 5(c) and Fig. 14), which is particularly promising in terms
of strengthening effects. In addition, Marchese et al. [24] observed a
large amount of coarse MC carbides and secondary carbides after heat
treatment, which significantly improved the strength of SLM-processed
IN625.
LSP can transform coarse columnar grains into equiaxed grains and
even induce nanograins (Figs. 7 and 14). According to the Hall-Petch
relationship (Eq. (5)):
σ H = Ky dm− 1∕2
where Ky is the Hall-Petch constant and dm is the grain size. It is clear
that strength of the sample increases as the decrease of the of grain size.
Previous work also shows that the reduce of grain size is an effective way
to increase the tensile strength of the sample. In addition, after grain
refinement, the density of the grain is increased, which allows the
Materials Science & Engineering A 835 (2022) 142610
deformation to be scattered in more grains. The scattered deformation
makes the deformation more homogeneous and reduces the difference
between the strain inside the grain and near the grain boundary, and
subsequently improves the plastic of the specimen. Also, the increased
grain density generates more winding grain boundaries and absorbs
more energy. Therefore, the ductility of the specimen is also improved
by the LSP treatment.
After LSP, high-density dislocation structures, including dislocation
lines and dislocation tangles are observed in the plastic deformation
layer (Figs. 8 and 14). These interactions of entangled dislocations
restrain the movement of dislocations, and consequently contribute to
(3) σ ρ = αMGm bρ1∕2 (6)
where α is the dislocation interaction factor, M is Taylor’s factor, Gm is
the shear modulus, b is the Burgers vector, and ρ is the dislocation
(4) density. The plastic deformation resistance is proportional to the square
root of dislocation density. The increased dislocation density improves
the tensile strength of the sample.
There is a high residual thermal stress in the SLM sample, which is
also the main reason for the crack propagation [61–63]. The tensile
residual stress concentrated around the pores (Fig. 10) may accelerate
the crack growth rate under external load, thereby weakening the me­
chanical properties. Although the residual thermal stress is released
greatly after heat treatment, a large number of strengthening phases will
be precipitated after heat treatment because the nickel-based alloy is a
solid solution strengthening alloy. As a result of these phases, the
strength of nickel-based alloy increases greatly, but the elongation de­
creases. Similar phenomena have been reported in some literature [29,
37]. After LSP, the plastic deformation causes lattice distortion at the
microstructure, which induces residual compressive stress into the
sample. The residual stress has a certain effect on the stress intensity
factor at the crack tip, which can prevent crack initiation, reduce crack
(5) growth rate, and effectively improve material strength and ductility
(Fig. 11).
4. Conclusions
In this work, the suitability of LSP on improving microstructure and
mechanical properties of TiC/IN625 alloy fabricated by SLM was
10
L. Chen et al.
studied. Some major conclusions are summarized as follows.
(1) No cellular/columnar dendritic MPBs can be observed in the HT-
TiC/IN625 samples. Heat treatment successfully removed the
dislocation lines and tangles brought by SLM process. Heat
treatment brought uniformly dispersed γ′ and γ ′ ’ phases, coarse
MC carbides, and fine secondary carbides to the TiC/IN625
samples.
(2) After LSP, under the upper surface of the HT + LSP sample, a
gradient structure of SPD layer and MPD layer was formed along
the depth direction. On the sub-surface of the HT + LSP sample,
the original coarse crystals were refined into nano-scale crystal
grains.
(3) LSP successfully strengthened the surface microhardness of the
HT sample from 526 HV to 581 HV. The high plastic strain caused
by LSP completely removed the tensile residual stress in the AB
sample and induced the compressive residual stress on the sample
surface. After LSP, the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of
the TiC/IN625 sample was increased by ~26.9% and ~3.7%,
respectively.
(4) The introduction of residual compressive stress, MPBs disap­
pearance, grain refinement, precipitation strengthening, and
dislocation strengthening all contributed to the strength of the
HT + LSP TiC/IN625 alloy.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Lan Chen: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – original draft.
Pengfei Gu: Experiment, Methodology. Tong Ge: Experiment, Meth­
odology. Yuzhou Sun: Methodology, review &editing. Lin Li: Meth­
odology. Xudong Ren: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing –
review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the projects supported by the Youth
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.
BK20210754), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 51975261), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
(Grant No. BK20160014), Innovation Team of Six Talents Peaks in
Jiangsu Province (Grant No.2019TD-KTHY-005).
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