Improvement of fatigue life of GH3039 superalloy by laser shock peening

Abstract

In order to improve fatigue life of GH3039 superalloy, GH3039 superalloy sheets were treated by laser shock peening (LSP). The microstructure of GH3039 superalloy before and after LSP was characterized using an optical microscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM), and X-ray diffractometer. The fatigue life of the samples with and without LSP was investigated by fatigue experiments. Moreover, surface profile and residual stress were also examined. Experimental results indicated that the grains in the surface layer of the LSP sample were remarkably refined and reached the nanometer scale. The average surface roughness increased from 0.024 μm to 0.19 μm after LSP. The average fatigue life of the laser treated samples was 2.01 times larger than that of the untreated specimens. Additionally, mathematical statistical analysis confirms that LSP has a significant influence on the fatigue life of GH3039 superalloy. The improvement of fatigue life for the laser processed GH3039 superalloy was mainly attributed to compressive residual stress and grain refinement generated by LSP.