An Evaluation of Abrasive Waterjet Peening With Elastic Prestress

Abrasive waterjet peening (AWJP) has been conceived as a new surface treatment process capable of achieving desired changes in surface texture, chemistry, and residual stress simultaneously. In the present investigation, the influence of elastic prestress on the residual stress resulting from AWJP was studied. Treatments were conducted on steel, as well as nickel and titanium alloy targets subjected to an elastic prestress ranging from 0% to 75% of the material's yield strength. The results showed that a tensile elastic prestress increases the surface residual stress and the depth of the compressive stress zone. The surface residual stress in each metal increased nonuniformly with magnitude of prestress; the maximum surface residual stress was obtained at an applied prestress between 45% and 60% of the substrate yield strength. Overall, the increases in surface stress and depth that were obtained reached 100% and 50%, respectively. There were no changes to the surface texture caused by the prestress. According to results of this study, application of an elastic prestress can serve as an effective method for improving characteristics of the residual stress field in components treated using AWJP.