Residual stress depth-profiling in shot-peened Al alloy components subjected to fatigue testing

The residual stress profile in a shot-peened Al alloy component was studied by a recently proposed method based on the known procedure of progressive thinning and X-ray Diffraction measurements. The effect the cyclic stress on the fatigue life was studied in detail, showing the correlation between nominal load and residual stress relaxation. Besides showing the expected decrease of compressive stress with the load and number of cycles, the present work highlights the importance of changes in the through-the-thickness residual stress distribution.