EFFECT OF SHOT PEENING ON RESIDUAL-STRESS AND FATIGUE LIFE OF A SPRING STEEL

This study describes shot peening effects such as shot hardness, shot size and shot projection pressure, on the residual stress distribution and fatigue life in reversed torsion of a 60SC7 spring steel. There appears to be a correlation between the fatigue strength and the area under the residual stress distribution curve. The biggest shot shows the best fatigue life improvement. However, for a shorter time of shot peening, small hard shot showed the best performance. Moreover, the superficial residual stresses and the amount of work hardening (characterised by the width of the X-ray diffraction line) do not remain stable during fatigue cycling. Indeed they decrease and their reduction rate is a function of the cyclic stress level and an inverse function of the depth of the plastically deformed surface layer.