Fabrication of process-equivalent test specimens of additively manufactured components

An additive manufacturing system for fabricating test specimens, the system comprising:

• an additive manufacturing machine for fabricating a component and separate test specimens;
• a sensor for detecting in-situ sensed data throughout a build process;
• a processor that performs the steps of:
• generating a processing history model of a component geometry, wherein input data comprising in-situ sensor data and/or processing metrics is mapped to the component, the input data including thermal conditions of the component within each of a plurality of build layers;
• dividing the processing history model of the component geometry into a first region characterized by a first range of input data, and a second region characterized by a second range of input data, wherein the first and second ranges of input data are non-overlapping;
• and
• using the first range of input data by an additive manufacturing machine processing routine using a first set of processing parameters to fabricate a first test specimen that has a processing history that includes thermal condition data within the first range of input data, and using the second range of input data by an additive manufacturing machine processing routine using a second set of processing parameters to fabricate a second test specimen that has a processing history that includes thermal condition data within the second range of input data, wherein the first set of processing parameters is different than the second set of processing parameters;
• wherein the additive manufacturing processing parameters comprise laser power, laser speed, hatch distance, layer thickness, beam offset, and beam focus;
• and
• wherein processing metrics are derived from the in-situ sensor data or from a computational model of an additive manufacturing process of the component.