Residual Stress Stability in High Temperature Fatigued Mechanically Surface Treated Metallic Materials

Different classes of metallic materials (aluminum alloys, steels, titanium alloys) were mechanically surface treated by deep rolling and laser shock peening and isothermally fatigued at elevated temperature under stress control. The fatigue tests were interrupted after different numbers of cycles for several stress amplitudes and residual stresses and FWHM-values were measured by X-ray diffraction methods at the surface and as a function of depth. The results summarize the response of the surface treatment induced residual stress profiles to thermomechanical loading conditions in the High Cycle Fatigue (HCF)- as well as in the Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) regime. The effects of stress amplitude, plastic strain amplitude, temperature and frequency are addressed in detail and discussed. The results indicate that residual stress relaxation during high temperature fatigue can be predicted for sufficiently simplified loading conditions and that thermal and mechanical effects can be separated from each other. A plastic strain based approach appears to be most suitable to describe residual stress relaxation. Frequency effects were found to be not very pronounced in the frequency range investigated.