Modelling of Ultrasonic Shot Peening

Component manufacturing may induce cold work, residual stresses, microstructure changes and even surface defects. This initial condition is usually ignored in component integrity assessments, but can strongly affect its lifetime. For instance, it is well-known that a rough surface finish associated to the presence of tensile residual stresses may favor fatigue damage. In the same manner, cold work and tensile residual stress will assist initiation of Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) for susceptible materials. As the manufacturing process can affect the lifetime of the structure, mitigation treatments such as precompressive loadings, chemical treatments, film deposits or coatings may be applied to sensitive areas. The objectives of these complementary operations are to avoid or compensate negative effects of manufacturing consequences. In the industry surface mechanical treatments such as Ultrasonic Shot Peening (USP) are then used in order to improve surface integrity. Even if these mitigation treatments are well known to increase component lifetime regarding corrosion and fatigue damages, a good understanding of their consequences is required to assess their efficiency and perpetuity under operating conditions. Numerical modelling of USP is one solution to simulate the motion of beads in the peening chamber and to predict the level of stresses in the peened part as shown in this paper. This model which gives a better understanding of the effect on surfaces should help the manufacturers to select the best process parameters.