The unique thermal history and layer-based fabrication inherent to Additive Manufacturing (AM) bring new aspects to the traditional understanding of material failure. This mini symposium focuses on the root causes of failure in additively manufactured components, as the related techniques rapidly gain ground in high-performance applications such as the aerospace, biomedical, and aviation sectors.

In this way, we aim to bring together academic researchers and industrial partners interested in the exploration of how AM-induced characteristics and defects affect the degradation of mechanical components in their working environment against different forms of loading (e.g., tensile, fatigue, creep, impact) or wear (erosion, corrosion, sliding wear), as well as the resulting fractographic characteristics.

The topics of the session will deal with metal, polymer, and ceramic AM techniques, with primary interest in (not limited) to:

• Inherent defects and microstructural characteristics in Additive manufacturing
• Mechanical loading of AM components
• Surface degradation and engineering of AM parts and coating
• Fractography of AM parts
• Simulation of failure modes
• The effect of design and topology on the failure of AM components