Residual Stress Distribution and Microstructure at a Laser Spot of AISI 304 Stainless Steel Subjected to Different Laser Shock Peening Impacts

The effects of different laser shock peening (LSP) impacts on the three-dimensional displayed distributions of surface and in-depth residual stress at a laser spot of AISI 304 stainless steel were investigated by X-ray diffraction technology with the sin2φ method and MATLAB 2010a software. Microstructural evolution in the top surface subjected to multiple LSP impacts was presented by means of cross-sectional optical microscopy (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. Experimental results and analysis indicated that residual stress distribution and microstructure at a laser spot depended strongly on the number of multiple LSP impacts, and refined grain and ultra-high strain rate play an important role in the improvement of compressive residual stress of AISI 304 stainless steel. The analysis of treatment of the extended surface was presented to obtain uniform surface properties on the top surface of AISI 304 stainless steel.