PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of mechanical surface treatments on the surface layer properties and the fatigue performance of the aircraft alloys Al 7075‐T73 and Ti‐6Al‐4VDesign/methodology/approachLaser peening without coating (LPwC), shot peening (SP), ultrasonic shot peening (USP) and ball burnishing (BB) were applied and the resulting changes in surface roughness and residual stress‐depth profiles were evaluated. Fatigue performance of both alloys was tested in rotating beam loading (R=−1) on hourglass‐shaped specimens and the results were compared with the electrolytically polished (EP) reference conditions.FindingsAll studied mechanical surface treatments led to pronounced increases in fully reversed fatigue lives and fatigue strengths in both Al 7075‐T73 and Ti‐6Al‐4V.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper that compares fatigue performance of a wide variety of mechanically surface treated conditions in two aircraft alloys.
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