The advent and rapid progression of additive manufacturing (AM) technology comes with an extraordinarily rich set of questions and possibilities. Conventional manufacturing (CM) methods can best be described as subtractive due to the nature in which a component is created; starting with a large piece of original material successive layers are removed until the desired design is realised. By utilising this form of manufacturing technique the cost of production often scales with complexity due to both the manufacturing time and the required ability of the machinist. AM techniques, by comparison, can be seen as a marked change in this methodology as the final form is achieved through a bottom-up approach, via the addition of material in a piecewise or layer-by-layer fashion. As AM moves from a novel manufacturing technique into the mainstream the importance of understanding its effects on material properties and corresponding behaviour will only increase. In the specific regime of dynamic loading, of interest in this project, the validity and rationality of these alternatives is of particular interest where material choices can represent significant safety implications (e.g. in aeronautic, automotive, civil or military applications). Due to the complexities, costs and inherent destructive nature of dynamic loading the vast majority of decisions tend to be based on the results of complex computer modelling. These models have evolved over many years of development, testing and validation against a multitude of experimental data; until now, this data has almost exclusively originated from experiments on CM materials. The applicable material science, physics and engineering information regarding AM materials has yet to be incorporated into existing models, mainly due to the novelty of the manufacturing technique. This PhD will investigate the relative mechanical behaviour of dynamically loaded AM and CM materials, with emphasis on identifying key deformation mechanisms for improved processing/microstructure/property relationships.
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