Mechanics of the burnishing process

Burnishing is a low-cost surface treatment process. However, scientific studies on this process have so far failed to describe how the process leads to surface hardening and improvement in the geometric quality of the material. Indeed, in spite of its apparent simplicity the process is rather complicated to reproduce by numerical simulation. This paper proposes a finite element modelling of the ball burnishing process. Thanks to this model, the effect of the burnishing process on the material is analysed. A ridge phenomenon that affects the mechanics of the process is demonstrated, allowing for improved modelling of the burnishing process.