Predictions of decreased surface roughness after shot peening using controlled media dimensions

Shot peening induces residual compressive stresses on metallic substrates, often used to decrease fatigue crack growth. The relationship between surface roughness and the magnitude of the stress can be affected by peening media size or the extent of peening. Generally, an ideal condition from shot peening would be a high compressive residual stress and a low surface roughness, but these tend to be inversely related. This study proposes a method for decreasing roughness and increasing residual stress concurrently using a distribution of shot sizes in a single shot peening passage based on finite element modeling that has been calibrated using by experimental results. Numerical models predict mixed shot sizes will create a smoother surface than using monodispersed shot at 100 % coverage. The residual stress profile for mixed shot sizes showed a broad range of compressive residual stresses in comparison with the largest impact ball size. This newly proposed method can improve the surface quality and the extent of the compressive residual stresses in a single-shot peening passage. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.