Investigation of Residual Stresses after Shot Peening Processing

Mechanical surface treatments using an elastic-plastic cold working process can develop residual stresses on the surface of a workpiece. Compressive residual stresses on the surface increase resistance against surface crack propagation, so the overall mechanical performance can be improved by this technique. Compressive residual stresses can be created by different methods such as hammering, rolling, and shot peening. Shot peening is a well-established method to induce compressive residual stresses in the metallic components using cold working, and often ascribed to being beneficial to fatigue life in the aerospace and automobile industries. In this method, the surface is bombarded by high-velocity spherical balls which cause plastic deformation of the substrate, leading to a residual compressive stress after shot peening on the surface of the part. Computational modeling is an appropriate and effective way which can predict the amount of produced residual stresses and plastic deformation to obtain surface roughness after shot peening simulation. Finally, an experimental method to measure the magnitude of the residual stress using a nanoindentation technique was developed. The experimental indentation method was compared to both computational predictions (in aluminum) and with x-ray diffraction measurements of stress (in an alloy steel). The current study validates the relation between the nanoindentation method and numerical simulation for assessing the surface residual stresses resulting from single or multiple shot peening processes.