UCRL-ID-155327

Laser Peening—A Processing Tool

To Strengthen Metals or Alloys
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 Laser Science and Technology

Laser Peening—A Processing Tool to Strengthen Metals or Alloys to Improve

Fatigue Lifetime and Retard Stress-Induced Corrosion Cracking
Dr. Lloyd A. Hackel and Dr. Hao-Lin Chen
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, California 92551

Laser peening is an emerging modern process that impresses a compressive stress into the
surfaces of metals or alloys. This treatment can reduce the rate of fatigue cracking and stress
corrosion cracking in structural metals or alloys needed for aerospace, nuclear power plants, and
military applications. Laser peening could also be used to form metals or alloys into precise shapes
without their yielding, leaving their surfaces in a crack resistant compressive state.

Introduction
When metal is bent, the surface of component flexes under a load, the surface
the outer radius is stretched into a tensile remains in compression, and a micro-crack or
state. Under tension, any flaw or flaw on the surface cannot grow.
microcrack will grow in size with each The first laser peening experiments took place
flexure until the crack spreads through the more than 30 years ago at the Battelle Institute
entire strip, breaking it into two pieces. in Ohio. However, it was only recently
Flexure of metal components occurs in (1996)—with the advent of high-power solid-
most applications. The teeth of transmission state lasers (see Figure 1) at higher repetition
gears strain at the root as they deliver rates and better beam quality—that this
torque in a vehicle. Springs and valves flex method began to compete with traditional
every time they transfer loads. The process shot-peening methods, which employ small
of metal forming and welding can also metal or ceramic particles to deliver the
cause tensile stress that allows defects to impact. While shot peening and other
grow into cracks and accelerate corrosion.
If fatigue or stress corrosion cracking
(SCC) failures from loads or vibration
occur in aerospace components and nuclear
power plants (such as turbine fan blades
ane reactor vessel closure head nozzles and
bolts), significant loss of assets and
potential loss of human life can occur.

Laser peening, better than any

other surface treatment technique, has
proven to extend the fatigue lifetime of
metal and alloy components. In the laser
peening process, a high-energy laser beam
creates an intense pressure wave (of about
1 million pounds per square inch) on the
surface of the metal, straining the metal
and leaving a residual compressive stress
both on the top and inside of the metal
Figure 1. LLNL’s laser peening system.
surface. If the compressive stress is
intense and deep enough, when the

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 Laser Science and Technology

mechanical surface treatment techniques are Prior to laser irradiation, the area to be treated is
only capable of producing compressive locally covered with two different layers of
stress down to depths of a few tenths of a material. First, a protective layer is applied to
millimeter, depths of compressive residual the surface; this is called the ablative layer
stress induced by laser peening are typically because its surface is ablated off during
on the order of several millimeters or more. treatment. Typical ablative layer materials
include 1- to 2-mils-thick plastic or metal foil
tape or paint, although in many applications
Laser Peening Process where the surface finish is not a critical issue,
the metal surface to be peened can act as the
Laser peening employs high-energy ablative layer. Next, a transparent inertial
laser pulses from a solid-state laser to create tamping layer is applied over the ablative layer,
intense shock waves in a material. The basics which acts as a tamper to confine the expansion
of the laser peening process are described in of the high-pressure plasma to be generated by a
Figure 2. A high-intensity laser beam with laser pulse. Typical materials for the tamping
peak power greater than 1 GW is imaged to a layer include glass or water (1–2 mm thick).
spot size of about 5 mm × 5 mm and After these two surface layers are in place, the
illuminates the metal substrate to be peened. laser peening process can be carried out.
The energy density of the laser is typically in When the laser beam illuminates the surface,
the range of 50 to 200 joules per cm2 and the it is absorbed and rapidly forms high-intensity
duration of the pulse is 5 to 30 nanoseconds plasma. The plasma is confined by the tamping
(ns). Laser peening is applied in a spot by spot layer and builds to a pressure of roughly a million
manner with typical irradiance (power per unit pounds per square inch (75 kbars). Although the
area) on the order of 2 to 10 GW/cm2. A laser tamping layer is very thin, during the very short 20-
system appropriate for peening at the ns duration of the laser pulse, its inertia keeps it
industrial level requires an average power in from moving more than a few microns, and thus it
the multihundred watt to kilowatt range and very effectively confines the pressure. This short
pulse energy of around 20 to 100 J. duration

Figure 2. Laser peening process description.

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 Laser Science and Technology

pressure pulse causes a shock wave to travel

through the material and leaves plastically
deformed material in its wake. The plastic
deformation (or density dislocation) caused
by the shock wave gives rise to compressive
residual stresses that can extend to several
millimeters in depth, making the material
more resistant to fatigue and stress corrosion
cracking. To induce a residual compressive
stress into the material, one must tailor the
laser intensity to GWs level to generate a
surface pressure that is greater than the
dynamic yield strength (Hugoniot) of metal.

Using an optical delivery system,

the peening pulses can be rapidly applied,
uniformly covering the full desired area. The
laser peening technology was
commercialized by industry in 2002 and is
now treating parts 24 hours a da0y, five to Figure 3. Laser peening produced residual compressive stress
six days per week, at peening rates of to a depth of 20% of the thickness of an Alloy 22 base metal.
nominal 1 squared meter per hour.

Laser Peening Induces Deep

Compressive Stress in Metal
Laser peening can very effectively
convert tensile stresses in the metal to strong
and relatively deep compressive stresses.
Residual stress induced by laser peening can
be made deeper and with significantly
greater stressed volume than conventional
shot peening. Depth of residual compressive
stress reaching 20% of the part thickness has
been achieved in Alloy 22 base metal (see
Figure 3). Laser peening was found to
produce residual stress to a depth of 3.8 mm
in 20-mm-thick Alloy 22 base material. A
residual stress profile for applications
requiring very deep residual stress is shown
in Figure 4. The depth of residual stress was Figure 4. A residual stress profile for applications requiring
found to have a significant dependence on very deep residual stress.
the number of peening layers and a slight
dependence on the level of irradiance.

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 Laser Science and Technology

Figure 5. Laser peening generates extremely deep compressive residual stress in alloy 22 weldment.

One of the recent laser peening Compressive Stress Improves Fatigue

successes is the production of compressive
residual stress to depths on the order of 5 mm Lifetime
in Ni-base alloy (Alloy-22) weldments and
base material. As a result of this Laser peening imparts a compressive
accomplishment, laser peening will be used residual stress to metal surfaces. With a
to remove tensile stresses on metal canister compressive residual stress effectively pushing
closure lids induced by the welding process. the atoms on the metal surface together, small
Figure 5 shows the contours of residual stress surface cracks and flaws that could easily grow
field measured in two identical 33-mm-thick into larger destructive cracks are prevented from
welded Alloy-22 plates with and without growing. This arrest of crack growth results in a
laser peening. Tensile stresses typically significant enhanced lifetime against fatigue
observed at the center of the weld bead were failure.
converted into compressive stresses after
laser peening. The contour plot of residual
stress in the laser-peened sample shows a
region of large and uniform compressive
stress within the peened area.

Laser peening produces very little

amount of cold work (a few percent) on parts
because only a single or a few deformation
cycles are required. After treatment, it leaves
a relatively uniform surface with an rms
surface finish of 50 microinches (see Figure
6). There is evidence that the stress induced
by laser peening has very low thermal
relaxation rate and remains much more
effective in parts operated at high Figure 6. Laser peening induces deep compressive
temperatures. stress in metal.

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 Laser Science and Technology

Tests on structural aluminum

components under heavy load are showing 10-
to 15-times lifetime improvements. As shown
in Figure 7, recent fatigue tests on 6061 T6
aluminum under various stress load conditions
show more than 50 times improvement in
fatigue lifetime for structural aluminum test
plates when compared to unpeened (control)
components and 10 times improvement when
compared to conventionally shot-peened
components. Shot peening is widely used in
industry to improve lifetime and resist
corrosion. However, the residual stress
imparted by shot peening is not nearly as deep
as that achieved with laser peening, and
Figure 8. Laser peening increases bending fatigue
consequently, laser peening achieves a much strength of gears.
greater lifetime improvement. This lifetime
extension can have dramatic importance for
the performance and reliability of field Laser peening was introduced this past
year into commercial production by industry
systems and an even greater effect on the
to eliminate fatigue failure in high value
maintenance costs to keep field systems
operating. commercial jet engine fan blades. In rigorous
tests of laser peening, jet engine fan blades
Laser peening of root area of gears that used to develop fatigue failure cracks after
increases bending fatigue strength and 500 flights are now able to achieve 10,000
lifetime for high-cycle fatigue (see Figure 8). flight operations without failure. The process
Recent testing has demonstrated significantly was developed, tested, and certified by the
improvement in high-stress component Federal Aviation Administration and then
lifetimes: 2 to 6 times in automotive and immediately brought into production to solve
helicopter gears and up to 10 times in bearing the serious problem. Since commercial
lifetime after laser treatment. introduction, aircraft worth several tens of
billions of dollars are now in service with
fatigue lifetime of metal components
95
laser-peened blades—saving millions of
dollars per month in aircraft maintenance and
90
blade replacement costs, while also greatly
85 Lasershot3M
Peened
enhancing safety.
80
Stress – MPa

75
70 Conventionally
Shot Peened
Retards Stress-Induced Corrosion
65
60
Cracking of Metals
55 Control Group
Recent experiments at LLNL have
50
10,000 100,000 1,000,000 10,000,000
also shown that laser peening can virtually
eliminate occurrence of stress corrosion
Fatigue Life Cycles
cracking in metal. During an accelerated stress
Figure 7. Laser peening significantly extends the corrosion cracking experiment in an aqueous
fatigue lifetime of metal components solution of MgCl2 at high temperature, we
measured the lifetime of type 304 stainless

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 Laser Science and Technology

Then the surface was subjected to a highly

corrosive environment of a 40% solution of
boiling magnesium chloride. As can be seen,
Unpeened
the unpeened area has several critical cracks
running transversely through the welded
section, and the test area has a highly corroded
surface appearance. In contrast, the laser-
peened area is free of stress corrosion cracks
and is shiny and free of rust. The application of
laser peening is clearly making a significant
improvement to the corrosion lifetime of the
Laser-Peened stainless type 316 metal.

In another convincing test, a welded

section of 1-inch-thick stainless steel is peened
Figure 9. Peened U-bend shows no sign of cracking. in selected areas and then subjected to the harsh
magnesium chloride environment. As seen in
steel U-bends under high-stress conditions. Figure 11, a stress corrosion crack, extending
The unpeened U-bends broke into two pieces through the entire one-inch thickness of the
within two hours, while the laser-peened U- material began to run longitudinally along the
bends showed no signs of cracking after more weld (along the right-hand side). However,
six days (see Figure 9). when it encountered the laser-peened area, the
compressive stress imparted to the surface
Test treatments of the laser processing effectively prevented the crack from propagating
show it to be very effective in reducing into the laser-peened area.
corrosion and eliminating stress corrosion
cracking. Figure 10 shows graphically how
the laser peening process reduces corrosion
and stops stress corrosion cracking. The photo
shows the results of a test on stainless steel
type 316 where two sections of metal are
welded together; the area on the left was laser
peened and the area on the right was not.

Figure 10. Laser peenng retards stress corrosion cracking Figure 11. Laser peening significantly reduces stress
and overall corrosion in stainless steel 316. corrosion cracking in welded 316 stainless steel.

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 Laser Science and Technology

The crack made a turn, continuing loaded with radioactive waste, the lids are
through unpeened area and eventually was welded on. Stress corrosion cracking of the
arrested when it encountered the larger laser- outer barrier lid weld has been identified as a
peened area. The peening of the surface has critical failure point. Laser peening is a
clearly demonstrated a dramatic effect on the leading candidate to convert the residual weld
crack resistance of the metal. stress from tensile to compressive, eliminating
stress corrosion cracking on storage canisters.
For the Department of Energy’s
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Disposal Forming Metals with Greater
Program, stress corrosion cracking is a
primary concern in the design of the storage Curvature and High Surface Finish
canisters since tensile residual stresses will
be left behind by the closure weld. Alloy 22 The compressive residual stress selectively
is a nickel-based stainless steel that is induced by the laser peening process can also
particularly resistant to corrosion; however, be used to cause the metal to curve in a
there is a chance that stress corrosion precisely controlled fashion. Now for the first
cracking could develop giving the right time, large metal panels up to 1 inch thick can
environmental conditions. Laser peening is be formed to tight radii (see Figure 13) and to
an emerging surface treatment technology difficult contours. During the forming process,
that has recently been identified as an laser peening impresses a deep level of
effective tool for mitigating tensile residual residual stress into selected surfaces of the
stresses in the storage canisters. These metal. The strain associated with the
canisters, which will be buried in Yucca compressive stress causes the treated surface
Mountain, Nevada, need to remain intact for to elongate, effectively bending the metal
10,000 years. Figure 12 is a schematic of within the processed area. When applied to
the storage canister. After the canisters are aircraft structural sections such as panels,

Figure 12. Waste storage canister for use in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Disposal Program. Eleven thousand
canisters filled with nuclear waste will be buried in the Nevada mountain.

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 Laser Science and Technology

in parts replacement costs, all the while greatly

enhancing safety (see Figure 14).

Laser peening is already having an

important impact in preventing the failure of jet
engine fan blades. The high-stress and high-
cycle loading of these components has led to
failures. Led initially by the U.S. Air Force,
research showed that laser treatment of the
leading edge of blades against foreign object
debris damage significantly extends the fatigue
lifetime and allows even a highly damaged but
Figure 13. Laser peen-forming can form tight radii in thick
laser-peened blade to have better fatigue lifetime
material with high accuracy and repeatability.
than unpeened new blade. An even greater-
vertical stabilizers, and rudders, the laser magnitude application has been the treatment of
wide cord fan blades for commercial engines to
process creates highly precise curvatures
prevent fretting fatigue failure.
(<160-inch radius) and contours even in
very thick (1-inch-thick and greater) section The manufacturing industry can now
material. apply the laser peening technology to improve
The laser peen-forming process the safety, reliability, and operational life of the
leaves a beneficial compressive stress on both next generation airplanes, ships, nuclear power
front and back surfaces, making the shaped plants, fighter jets, and military vehicles so that
they will have longer service life and lower
sections highly resistant to stress corrosion
operating cost.
cracking and fatigue failure. This process will
dramatically change aircraft manufacturing
by introducing a new capability for designing
and forming thick section components.
Component sections can be made larger,
reducing the number of joints and allowing
lighter weight panels. This will translate
directly into increased payload and fuel
efficiency for the transportation industries.

Laser Peening is a Developed

Process
—Enhancing Fatigue Lifetime and
System Safety
Laser peening was introduced into Figure 14. Production laser peening has arrived. It will
commercial production by industry in May increase the lifetime of parts, improving reliability and
2002. This peening system was deployed to safety.
solve an important fatigue failure problem in
high-value commercial jet engine fan blades and
discs. Since initial deployment, multiple
applications and aircraft worth billions of dollars
are now in service with laser-peened For further information, please contact:
parts—saving millions of dollars per month in Dr. Lloyd A. Hackel: [email protected], (925) 422-9009
aircraft maintenance costs and millions more Dr. Hao-Lin Chen: [email protected], (925) 422-6198

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