Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Shot peening is a cold working process widely used to improve the fatigue life of metal components in the aerospace industry. This process is accomplished by bombarding the surface of a metallic component with shots at a high velocity that induce a plastic deformation layer near the surface. This plastic deformation leads to a residual compressive stress field in the peened surface that reduces the likelihood of premature failure under cyclic loading conditions and therefore improves the fatigue life of the peened component. The principle objective of this collaborative project is to develop in collaboration with the industrial partners novel methodologies for characterizing the shot peening process. One part of the program is devoted to establish analytical and numerical models for the prediction of the shot peening process. Experimental campaigns are planned in order to qualify the effect of the shot peening parameters on the peening results as well as to validate the developed models. The other part of the program is to assess the fatigue life improvement on the peened components. The crack initiation and propagation during cyclic loading in the peened component will be experimentally observed and numerically simulated in the microstructural scale.