Characterization of Shot-Peened Surfaces by a Noncontacting Thermoelectric Method

Shot peening is widely used in the aerospace and other industries to increase the damage tolerance of metal parts via producing a thin surface layer of compressive residual stress that prevents crack initiation and retards crack growth during service. Nondestructive evaluation of the prevailing compressive residual stress in the shallow subsurface layer is complicated by the adverse effects of shot peening, such as surface roughness and cold work that manifests itself through increased dislocation density and localized texture. Recent research efforts have revealed that conventional ultrasonic and eddy current NDT methods are simply too sensitive to surface roughness to quantitatively assess the subtle variations in mechanical and electrical properties that are caused by shot peening. On the other hand, noncontacting thermoelectric techniques are very unique among all other methods used in nondestructive materials characterization in that they are solely sensitive to intrinsic material variations regardless of the size, shape, and surface quality of the specimen to be tested. Noncontacting thermoelectric methods, based on magnetic detection of local thermoelectric currents around inhomogeneities in metals when a temperature gradient is established throughout the specimen, are especially well suited for the characterization of shot peened surfaces. Experimental evidence suggests that this method can reliably detect and quantitatively assess otherwise hidden variations in material properties within the shallow surface layer of shot peened specimens. The thermoelectric method is sensitive to all three “material” effects of shot peening, namely residual stress, local texture, and increased dislocation density, but it is entirely insensitive to its “geometrical” by-product, i.e., the rough surface topography. Further development of the thermoelectric method is necessary to study the underlying physical phenomena before it can be successfully adapted to practical inspection problems, but the preliminary results presented in this paper are very promising.