Compressive residual stress relaxation in hardened steel during cyclic and static load

The benefits of applied compressive residual stress on fatigue properties of materials is a well-known phenomenon, but not well described in all respects. The fatigue life and the fatigue limit could be improved by targeted created compressive residual stress in the surface layers therefore, diversified surface compressing methods are developed and used in the engineering industry. The relaxation of the compressive residual stress state during a cyclic and static load is determinative for the life time of a componenet. Compressive stress relaxation was experimentally determined during the cyclic and static load. The compressive residual stress was induced by shot penning on the surface of stainless steel, micro alloyed high strength steel and hardened steel specimens. The residual stress state was investigated nondestructively by X-ray diffraction method then these specimens were load. After a certain number of cycles the fatigue load was stopped and the residual stress state was recorded again and again until fracture. To investigate the relaxation process during static load a four-point bending bench was used. The compressive residual stress relaxation was correlated to the applied fatigue stress level, the cycle number the quality of alloys. (paper)