Retention of Compressive Residual Stresses Introduced by Shot Peening in a Powder Metal Disk Superalloy

The fatigue lives of disk superalloys can be increased by shot peening their surfaces, to induce compressive residual stresses near the surface that impede cracking there. As disk application temperatures increase for improved efficiency, the persistence of these beneficial stresses could be impaired, especially with continued fatigue cycling. The objective of this work was to study the retention of residual stresses introduced by shot peening, when subjected to fatigue and high temperatures. Fatigue specimens of powder metallurgy processed nickel-base disk superalloy ME3 were prepared with consistent processing and heat treatment. They were then shot peened using varied conditions. Strain-controlled fatigue cycles were run at room temperature and 704 C, to allow re-assessment of residual stresses.