Surface Integrity of Shot Peened Aluminium Alloy 7075-T651

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of surface hardening by shot-peening (SP) on fatigue properties of high-strength aluminium alloy 7075-T651. The paper describes the effects of SP treatment by presenting analyses of surface roughness measurement, microhardness profiles, microstructure changes, residual stresses and material bending fatigue resistance. The obtained results show a favourable influence of SP treatment on fatigue properties as induced compressive residual stresses and hardened sui face layer retarded the initiation of fatigue cracks. SP treatment nearly doubled the cycles to failure at the higher applied stresses when compared to the untreated specimens. The fatigue limit of the SP-treated specimens increased to 218 MPa at 107 cycles. The experimental data confirmed an increase of fatigue strength offer SP treatment due to the compressive residual stress ability to influence fatigue crack nucleation. Increased resistance to plastic deformation and the residual stress profiles provided a corresponding fatigue crack closure. (C)2011 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.