Residual stresses caused by head-on and 45° foreign object damage for a laser shock peened Ti–6Al–4V alloy aerofoil

This paper investigates the effect on the residual stresses of foreign object damage (FOD) to a previously laser shock peened (LSP) leading edge (LE). FOD was introduced onto the LE of the aerofoil-shaped specimen through ballistic impacts of a cube edge at angles of 0° and 45° to the leading edge. The residual stress distribution was mapped around the FOD notch by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The results suggest that for both impact angles, the FOD event superimposed a significant additional residual stress on top of the pre-existing stress associated with the LSP process. In particular, the compressive stress was found to be largest directly beneath the notch and the tensile region, seen previously for unpeened aerofoils beneath the compressive zone, was absent due to the pre-existing peening stress field. This may help to explain the improved fatigue strength observed previously. It is shown that the FOD notch created by 45° impact was asymmetric in shape and smaller in depth compared to that created at 0°. The residual stresses were somewhat larger for the 0° impact condition than for 45° partly due to the larger notch depth introduced in the former case.