Improvement of Fatigue Strength of Aluminum Alloy by Cavitation Shotless Peening

Abstract

Cavitation impact, which normally produces severe damage in hydraulic machinery, can be used to modify surfaces in the same way as shot peening. Cavitation impact enables the surface of a material to be peened without the use of shot, thus it is called cavitation shotless peening. As there are no solid body collisions occurring in this peening process, the roughness of the peened surface should be less than that produced by shot peening. This characteristic makes it suitable for peening soft metals. In order to demonstrate the improvement of the fatigue strength of aluminum alloy by this process, specimens were subjected to the process, and then tested in a rotating bending fatigue test. Cavitation impacts were produced and controlled by using a submerged high speed water jet with cavitation, i.e., a cavitating jet. It was revealed that the fatigue strength of an aluminum alloy specimen treated by this peening process was 50% stronger than that of a specimen without peening.