Finite Element Modelling of Shot Peening and Strengthening Mechanism Analysis

Book excerpt: The service performance and life of metal parts are closely related to the surface integrity of materials. Shot peening (SP) is a well-known surface strengthening technique and is widely used for the improvement of the component surface integrity in industrial fields, such as aerospace,vehicle, construction machinery and etc. With the rapid development of science and technology, numerous new SP techniques have been developed from the conventional mechanical shot peening, such as the laser shock peening (LSP), ultrasonic shot peening (USP),surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) and etc. Different from the other mechanical processing techniques, a considerable number of process parameters have an influence on the surface strengthening effects of shot-peened metal parts. Therefore, the selection of the SP process parameters with respect to the different metal parts has always been a challenge. With the rapid development of the computer technology, the numerical simulation has increasingly attracted the more and more attentions both from the academy and the industry. Compared to the experimental investigations, the numerical simulations are not only timesaving and economical, but also can provide an insight into the surface strengthening mechanisms of SP.