Determination of residual stress distribution combining slot milling method and finite element approach

Residual stress plays a vital role in the structural strength and stability. The determination of residual stress at single-point has become mature at present. However, the method to determine residual stress distribution is still in shortage. For this problem, a finite element approach combined with slot milling method was developed in this study. In the method, firstly a slot is milled on the specimen surface to release the residual stress and then the released displacement field is measured by optical method, such as digital image correlation (DIC), finally the finite element approach is used to determine the residual stress distribution along the slot. In order to verify the feasibility of the method, it was applied to study the residual stress introduced by shot peening, mainly about the stress distribution along the direction vertical to the shot peened surface. Since the influence depth of shot peening was too small, we utilized focused ion beam (FIB) to determine the microscale residual stress distribution. The result measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) demonstrated that the method was feasible to determine the residual stress distribution.