Microscopic analysis of effect of shot peening on corrosion fatigue behavior of aluminum alloy

The object of this study considers corrosion fatigue improvement of 7075-T6 aluminum by using shot peening treatment on 3.5% NaCl solution at room temperature. Aluminum alloy is generally used in aerospace structural components because of the light weight and high strength characteristics. Many studies have shown that an aluminum alloy can be approximately 50% lighter than other materials. Mostly, corrosion leads to earlier fatigue crack propagation under tensile conditions and severely reduces the life of structures. Therefore, the technique to improve material resistance to corrosion fatigue is required. Shot peening technology is widely used to improve fatigue life and other mechanical properties by induced compressive residual stress. Even the roughness of treated surface causes pitting corrosion, the compressive residual stress, which is induced under the surface layer of material by shot peening, suppersses the corrosion and increases the corrosion resistance. The experimental results for shot peened specimens were compared with previous work for non treated aluminum alloy. The results show that the shot peening treatment affects the corrosion fatigue improvement of aluminum alloys and the induced compressive residual stress by shot peening treatment improves the resistance to corrosion fatigue