Finite Element Simulation of Shot Peening and Stress Peen Forming

Shot peening is widely used to improve fatigue life of the metal component. It can also induce the distortion of thin component, which is called peen forming and is widely used for shaping aircraft wing skin. Shot peening surface coverage, intensity and saturation are important shot peening control parameters and have greatly influence on shot peening and peen forming results. Due to the insufficient investigation and control of these parameters, the design of peen forming for a specific shape has been based on experimental trial and error. The objective of this paper is to simulate the actual shot peening and peen forming process and relate the results with shot peening parameters. A newly developed 3D finite element model with multiple random distributed shots has been developed to simulate the shot peening process. An Implicit-Explicit sequence solution is applied to compare the results of conventional peen forming and stress peen forming.