Comparable Study on Water Cavitation Peening and Traditional Shot Peening of Almen Strips

Abstract

Comparing with conventional mechanical shot peening (SP) technique, water cavitation peening (WCP) experiments of Almen strips were carried out on a self-manufactured equipment. The results show that WCP demonstrates a wide range of standoff distance (SD) that from the nozzle to the surface of the object. By measuring the colour changes of the Fuji pressure sensing film, over 110 MPa impacting pressure was detected, which is resulted from the bubbles blasting on the sample surface when the SD is from 65 to 100 mm under 40 MPa of operating pressure. 600 MPa compressive residual stress achieved on the suface of the Almen strips after WCPed for 32 min. The depth of the zone affected by the compressive residual stress is about 100 µm. The highest residual stress appears in the top surface layer, while in case of SP it appears in the subsurface. Compared to SP, WCP is capable to get rather smoother surface and cause less deformation of the testing sheet, simultaneously.