Author(s)

Elphas Tum^1,2,3,4*, Rehema Ndeda¹, James Mutua⁵, Raghupatruni Prasad^3,4,6, Eyitao Olakanmi^2,3,4, Sisa Pityana⁷

¹Department of Mechatronic Engineering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, Kenya.
²Department of Mechanical, Energy and Industrial Engineering, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
³Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Education (AMEE) Research Group, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
⁴UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation Technologies (UCoSMIT) Team, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
⁵Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, Kenya.
⁶Department of Chemical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
⁷National Laser Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa.

Heat treatment processes, such as annealing and quenching, are crucial in determining residual stress evolution, microstructural changes and mechanical properties of metallic materials, with residual stresses playing a greater role in the performance of components. This paper investigates the effect of heat treatment on residual stresses induced in AISI 1025, manufactured using LENS. Finite element model was developed and simulated to analyze residual stress development. AISI 1025 samples suitable for tool and die applications in Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) filament production, were fabricated using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) process, followed by heat treatment where annealing and quenching processes were done. The material’s microstructure, residual stress and hardness of heat-treated samples under investigation, were compared against the as-built samples. The results indicated that after annealing, tensile residual stresses were reduced by 93%, resulting in a reduced crack growth rate, compared to the as-built sample, although the hardness was reduced significantly by 25%. On the other hand, high tensile residual stresses of 425 ± 14 MPa were recorded after quenching process with an improvement of hardness by 21%.

Heat Treatment, Residual Stresses, Hardness, Microstructure, Numerical Simulation

Tum, E. , Ndeda, R. , Mutua, J. , Prasad, R. , Olakanmi, E. and Pityana, S. (2025) Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Heat Treatment Processes on AISI 1025 Steel Produced by Laser Engineered Net Shaping. Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science, 15, 1-15. doi: 10.4236/mnsms.2025.151001.