Formation of Compressive Residual Stresses by Shot Peening for Spot Welded Stainless Steel Plates

Abstract

In this paper, a stainless steel 316 was selected for this study and tested to obtain its chemical composition, mechanical properties and stress relieving. Then, two plates (55*55*1) mm were first joined by spot welding and later tested by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) machine to measure the tensile residual stresses formed due to thermal effect. In order to remove the tensile residual stresses, a shot peening process for these spot welded plates was made to create the compressive residual stresses which will improve the life of spot welded part during the service. The results of the x-ray diffraction tests exhibited that only compressive residual stresses formed in the shot peened spot welded plates.