Investigation on Residual Stress Loss during Laser Peen Texturing of 316L Stainless Steel

Laser peen texturing (LPT) is a novelty way of surface texturing based on laser shock processing. One of the most important benefits of LPT is that it can not only fabricate surface textures but also induce residual compressive stress for the target material. However, the residual stress loss leads to partial loss of residual compressive stress and even causes residual tensile stress at the laser spot center. This phenomenon is not conducive to improving the mechanical properties of materials. In this study, a numerical simulation model of LPT was developed and validated by comparison of surface deformation with experiments. In order to investigate the phenomenon of residual stress loss quantitatively, an evaluation method of residual stress field was proposed. The effects of laser power density and laser spot radius on the residual stress, especially the residual stress loss, were systematically investigated. It is found that with the increase of laser power density or laser spot radius, the thickness of residual compressive layer in depth direction becomes larger. However, both the magnitude and the affecting zone size of residual stress loss will be increased, which implies a more severe residual stress loss phenomenon.