Influence of Mechanical Surface Treatments on the Fatigue Performance of the Gamma TiAl Alloy Ti-45Al-9Nb-0.2C

Abstract:

The effect of shot peening and roller burnishing on the fatigue performance of the γ(TiAl) alloy Ti-45Al-9Nb-0.2C was investigated over a wide range of processing intensities. At optimized conditions shot peening and roller burnishing can markedly improve the fatigue strength at ambient temperatures. For temperatures above 650 °C, the residual compressive stresses induced by shot peening and roller burnishing quickly relax. This indicates that, at elevated temperatures, surface roughness and dislocation strengthening become more important for the fatigue performance of mechanically surface-treated components. Roller burnishing leads to much lower surface roughness than shot peening, resulting in more effective improvement of high temperature fatigue performance. However, surface strengthening by shot peening can also be beneficial for the fatigue performance at elevated temperatures, when the surface roughness is reduced by subsequent polishing.