From Incident Laser Pulse to Residual Stress: A Complete and Self-Closed Model for Laser Shock Peening

Abstract

Laser shock peening (LSP) is emerging as a competitive alternative technology to classical treatments to improve fatigue and corrosion properties of metals for a variety of important applications. LSP is often performed under a water confinement regime, which involves several complicated physical processes. A complete and self-closed LSP model is presented in this paper, which requires a sequential application of three submodels: a breakdown-plasma model, a confined-plasma model, and a finite element mechanics model. Simulation results are compared with experimental data in many aspects under a variety of typical LSP conditions, and good agreements are obtained.