Ultrasonic Cavitation Peening of Stainless Steel and Nickel Alloy

Ultrasonic cavitation peening is a peening process utilizing the high pressure induced by ultrasonic cavitation in liquids (typically water). However, the relevant previous investigations in the literature have been limited. In this paper, ultrasonic cavitation peening on stainless steel and nickel alloy has been studied, including the observation or characterization of the surface hardness, morphology, profile, roughness and oxygen contamination of treated workpiece samples. It has been found that for the studied situations, ultrasonic cavitation peening (at a sufficiently high horn vibration amplitude) can obviously enhance the workpiece surface hardness without significantly increasing the surface roughness, changing surface morphology observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), or contaminating the surface by oxygen.