The Influence of Age Hardening and Shot Peening on the Surface Properties of 7075 Aluminium Alloy

The present study investigates the effect of shot peening (SP) on the mechanical properties and surface roughness of 7075 aluminum alloy during different stages and conditions of heat treatment. The mechanical properties were determined by measuring Vickers microhardness profiles and residual stress profiles, while the amount of alloying elements present in the solid solution of the samples under different heat treatment conditions was determined by measuring the electrical conductivity. The results show that the increase in microhardness near the SP surface and the maximum compressive residual stresses are mainly related to the content of alloying elements in the solid solution. Surface roughness increases with increasing SP Almen intensity, and samples with the highest microhardness and residual stresses have the lowest surface roughness.

An Improved Approach to Direct Simulation of an Actual Almen Shot Peening Intensity Test with a Large Number of Shots

In existing simulations of the Almen intensity test, arc height is indirectly obtained by an equivalent method including a representative cell, a few shots and equivalent loading. Most of these equivalent methods cannot consider the transverse deformation of the strip, the complex stress state of the plastic hardening layer and process parameters, resulting in deviation from the actual test. This paper introduces an improved and experimentally validated discrete element model (DEM)-finite element model (FEM) to predict the actual Almen intensity. The improvement of this model is mainly reflected in the large and real number of shots involved in the actual Almen intensity test, shot–shot interactions, and real-size solid finite element model of the Almen strip. A new method for calculating the shot stream is proposed based on the test and considering test process parameters such as the mass flowrate, nozzle movement speed and nozzle–workpiece distance. The shot stream impacting the strip with a fully restrained underside was first simulated in improved DEM-FEM to bring the forming energy. As a second step, an implicit solver of the Almen strip FEM calculates the spring-back to simulate strip removal from the holder. The results achieved by the present approach are compared with the results obtained by the experimental results and those in the literature. The results show that the arc height and Almen intensity obtained by the present approach match much better with the literature than the traditional method. Some new results obtained by the improved coupling DEM-FEM method are presented. The influences of the transverse deformation and surface plastic layer on the deformation of the Almen strip are discussed. This improved method provides an alternative characterization method for precision peen forming simulation.

Analysis of the Influence of High Peening Coverage on Almen Intensity and Residual Compressive Stress

The effectiveness of shot peening is mainly determined by the peening coverage. The peening coverage is required to be 100% for current technical standards of shot peening. With the increase of material strength, higher peening coverage is required in shot peening process. However, the influence of high peening coverage on Almen intensity and residual compressive stress is unclear, the difficulty mainly lies in the lack of quantitative description of peening coverage in finite element analysis. To analyze the influence of high peening coverage on Almen intensity and residual compressive stress, firstly an approximate quantitative description of peening coverage based on dent size, the distance of shots and shot numbers is proposed in this study. Based on this quantitative description of peening coverage, the arc height and residual stress of the Almen test are simulated with the finite element method. The simulation results of arc height and saturation curve agree well with that of the Almen test, by which the effectiveness of the quantitative description and FE simulation are proved. The further study indicates that in shot peening processes, the excessive peening coverage doesn’t improve Almen intensity and residual compressive stress.

An Integrated DEM-FEM Model for Shot Peening Applications

Shot peening is a commonly used technique for improving the fatigue life of machine components by inducing compressive residual stresses in the surface layers. This process involves plastically deforming the surface layers by impacting with spherical particles at high speeds. The induced residual compressive stresses resist crack propagation and thus increase the fatigue life. The intensity of shot peening, measured using the Almen test, is an essential quantity for ensuring shot peening effectiveness and repeatability. It depends on various process parameters such as the shot speed, shot size, shot material, impact direction, and flow rate. In this study, a novel computational model is developed to simulate the Almen intensity tests on a Type-C strip accurately. The model uses a coupled technique based on the discrete element method (DEM) and the conventional finite element method (FEM). The predicted Almen intensity values agree with analytically calculated values. Results from the parametric studies conducted to analyze the influence of various parameters on the Almen intensity indicate that many different combinations of these parameters can obtain a given Almen intensity although the residual stress fields may vary.

Non-Destructive Evaluation of Steel Surfaces after Severe Plastic Deformation via the Barkhausen Noise Technique

This paper reports about the non-destructive evaluation of surfaces after severe shot peening via the Barkhausen noise technique. Residuals stresses and the corresponding Almen intensity, as well as microstructure alterations, are correlated with the Barkhausen noise signal and its extracted features. It was found that residual stresses as well as the Barkhausen noise exhibit a valuable anisotropy. For this reason, the relationship between the Barkhausen noise and stress state is more complicated. On the other hand, the near-the-surface layer exhibits a remarkable deformation induced softening, expressed in terms of the microhardness and the corresponding crystalline size. Such an effect explains the progressive increase of the Barkhausen noise emission along with the shot-peening time. Therefore, the Barkhausen noise can be considered as a promising technique capable of distinguishing between the variable regimes of severe shoot peening.

Effect of the shot peening process on the fatigue strength of SAE 5160 steel

The fatigue behaviour of SAE 5160 steel was evaluated before and after applying a shot peening process by using different Almen intensities and surface coverings (uncovered, partial coverage and total coverage). In the high-cycle fatigue tests, maximum stresses of 0.8 Sut, 0.7 Sut and 0.6 Sut were applied in the three-point bending test on an Instron 8872 servo-hydraulic machine at a frequency of 10 Hz and a constant stress ratio of Smin/ Smax = 0.2 for all tests. The fatigue tests were performed based on the ASTM E8, the specimens were classified into six groups for each stress evaluated, and each group consisted of three standardised specimens (ASTM E466). Also, yield strength, ultimate strength, hardness and microhardness were obtained. The Wilcoxon’s non-parametric test was used to statistically compare all the mechanical properties obtained from the base material with those obtained after the application of the shot peening, for the different surface coverings and Almen intensities. The results showed that the shot peening process significantly increases the fatigue strength of the material, with a 94% increase in fatigue strength of the fully coated specimens. However, no significant increase in fatigue strength was found due to a change in the Almen intensity value. A high correlation factor was found between the increase in the ultimate resistance and the increase in Almen intensity; however, for the yield stress the correlation was medium and inverse. For hardness and microhardness, the correlation factor was very low. Finally, the microhardness values revealed a 3% increase in Vickers microhardness of the shot peening specimens compared to the untreated specimens.

Effect of Shot Peening on the Long Life Fatigue Properties of Ti6Al4V with Different Heat Treatment

In order to investigate the effect of shot peening on the long life fatigue properties of Ti6Al4V (TC4), ultrasonic fatigue tests were performed with a frequency of 20 kHz. According to different heat treatment, two groups of specimens were surface modified by shot peening with an Almen intensity of 0.10 mmA~ 0.15 mmA and an overlapping rate of 100%. One group was stress-relief annealed at 650 °C, and the other was then treated with solution-aging. With the shot peening, both the depth of the residual stress layer and the maximum compressive residual stress are increased. Surface hardness is also increased. The fatigue strength is increased, but enhancement is no more than 5% because of the increase of surface roughness. Noticeably, all of the TC4 specimens after shot peening show inner crack initiations. Oxide inclusion is always the core of cracks, and the small crack propagation in crack initiation area acts as the slip of α-phase.