Acoustic monitoring of crack formation in powder bed fusion-laser beam of CM247LC
Journal article, 2026
Crack formation of CM247LC makes fabrication of this alloy by powder bed fusion-laser beam a major challenge. Rather than focusing on prevention strategies, this work investigates the possibility of monitoring crack formation using in-situ acoustic measurements. During printing, impulsive acoustic events are observed in structure-borne acoustic emission recordings, and a signal processing pipeline is proposed in order to automatically detect these events over the full print. No clear correlation was found between the number of these acoustic events and the observed crack density. However, the acoustic impulses are hypothesized to be caused by post-solidification cracks, where either the hot crack or the sharp edges of lack of fusion porosities act as initiation sites for small scale cracks. This is further validated using operando synchrotron imaging, showing that the formation of a hot crack does not seem to generate acoustic impulses, but the morphology change of the crack after solidification does. Finally, these acoustic events were not detectable with an optical microphone.
Cracking
Acoustic monitoring
PBF-LB
CM247LC
Author
Rik Vaerenberg
KU Leuven
Jamasp Jhabvala
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Amir Mohammad Jamili
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Ahmed Fardan Jabir Hussain
Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Materials and manufacture
Laura Perrin
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Reza Esmaeilzadeh
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Gowtham Soundarapandiyan
Paul Scherrer Institute
Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Materials and manufacture
Vigneashwara Pandiyan
University of Turku
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
Roland Axel Richter
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
Federica Marone
Paul Scherrer Institut
S. Van Petegem
Paul Scherrer Institut
Eduard Hryha
Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Materials and manufacture
Roland E. Logé
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Bey Vrancken
KU Leuven
Konstantinos C. Gryllias
KU Leuven
Additive Manufacturing Letters
27723690 (eISSN)
Vol. 19 100430Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Applied Mechanics
DOI
10.1016/j.addlet.2026.100430