Residual stresses and fatigue performance

Residual stresses are an inescapable consequence of manufacturing and fabrication processes, with magnitudes that are often a high proportion of the yield or proof strength. Despite this, their incorporation into life prediction is primarily handled through sweeping assumptions or conservative application of statistics. This can lead to highly conservative fatigue design methodologies or unforeseen failures under dynamic loading. The pull from the desire for higher levels of materials performance, coupled with the push of more sophisticated techniques for residual stress measurement, favours a reassessment of the accuracy of assumptions made about residual stresses and their modification during fatigue cycling. A viewpoint is also emerging that the fatigue performance of welded joints might be optimised through careful process control, coupled with understanding of the relative positions of, and interaction between, residual stress peaks, weld defects, hardness and microstructure. This paper will present information regarding the residual stress profiles in aluminium and steel welds, and in shot peened aluminium, obtained via synchrotron and neutron diffraction at the ESRF-ILL in Grenoble. Certain specimens were then subjected to specific cases of fatigue loading and the residual stress field was again measured. Difficulties associated with determining the strain-free lattice spacing will be mentioned, and the potential import of these data for life prediction modelling will be considered. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.