Characteristics of Residual Stress Profiles in Hard Turned vs. Ground Surfaces with and Withouta White Layer

There exists some inconsistence regarding the true residual stress profiles by hard turning and grinding AISI 52100 steel (62 HRc). This study aims to clarify the pressing issues for five surface types: hard turned fresh, hard turned with a white layer, ground fresh, ground with a white layer, and as-heat-treated. The key findings are: (i) hard turned fresh surfaces produce surface compressive residual stress and subsurface maximum compressive residual stress, while ground fresh surfaces only generate surface maximum compressive residual stress; (ii) hard turned white layer surfaces generate a high tensile stress in the white layer, but has highly compressive residual stress in the deeper subsurface than the hard turned fresh surfaces; (iii) hard turned white layer surfaces change the basic shape of residual stress profiles, while ground white layer surfaces do not; (iv) Tensile residual stress in hard turned white layer surfaces is higher than that the ground white layer surfaces. However, the residual stress for the ground white layer does not become compressive in the subsurface; and (v) Machining is the deterministic factor for the resulting residual stress compared with heat treatment.