Unveiling the origins of work-hardening enhancement and mechanical instability in laser shock peened titanium

Laser shock-peening (LSP) produces complex gradients in microstructures and residual stresses, which enables fabrication of metallic engineering components with superior mechanical properties. Here we use non-destructive and spatially resolved high-energy X-ray diffraction (HE-XRD) to investigate the influences of LSP on microstructure, surface topography, and residual stress for high purity titanium plates. LSP is found to produce large compressive in-plane residual stresses near the peened surface which monotonically decay to zero about 2.5 mm below the surface. These properties were also tracked during in-situ tensile loading, allowing stress partitioning and work-hardening rates to be measured as a function of depth. The surface region is found to have the highest work-hardening rate and remain mechanically stable up to sample failure. In addition, a crystal rigid rotation along a transversal axis of about 27° was observed at large applied strain near the surface region, which is attributed to the formation of denser dispersed shear bands. Furthermore, a sudden drop in tensile stress was observed at a depth of ∼160 µm from the LSP surface, indicating the formation of a localized mechanical instability zone (LMIZ). The origin of this LMIZ could be attributed to the increase in shear stress induced by a load transfer from LSP surface due to the formation of denser dispersed shear bands. These observations indicate a localized transition in deformation behavior has occurred from dispersed shear banding to LMIZ and homogeneous deformation.