Finite Element Analysis of the Effect of Overlapping Impacts of Laser Shock Peening Within Annealed AISI 1053 Steel

Laser shock peening is a surface treatment technique similar to conventional shot peening. The laser induced plasma causes plastic deformations and compressive residual stresses in materials which are useful for developing improved properties in the fields of fatigue, wear or stress corrosion cracking. Finite element method is an efficient tool to predict the mechanical effects and the deformations caused due to laser shock peening, which otherwise are difficult to calculate due to the severe pressure imparted in a very short period of time. This paper presents the calculations performed using ABAQUS, for the simulation of multiple laser shock processing in order to evaluate the residual stress and the deformation of the material. A study of the effect of multiple laser shocks and their extent of overlap on the affected depths and the tensile and compressive residual stresses has been discussed. FEM calculations of residual stress fields and extent of surface deformation in annealed AISI 1053 steel has been investigated along with a study of the distribution of tensile and compressive residual stresses due to the difference in the extent of overlap of the multiple shocks.