Abstract
Laser peening (LP) is one of several surface modification techniques which can provide compressive residual
stress to a metal surface and enhance the fatigue strength. It is applied to strengthen a turbine
blade of an aircraft engine and repair a core shroud in a nuclear power plant. In general, the effect of LP
is evaluated by measuring the compressive residual stress in a point on the treated area. However, it is
required to consider the uniformity of the compressive residual stress distribution on the top surface,
suppressing generation of fatigue cracks. Furthermore, prediction of a compressive residual stress distribution
is also important to optimize laser process parameters. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate
a prediction method of the residual stress distribution by using laser intensity distribution and material
properties. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by comparison of predicted and measured
distributions.
