December 2002

Materials Letters 57 (2002) 604 – 608

www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Enhancement of fatigue strength of SAE 9245

steel by shot peening
S. Tekeli *
Materials Division, Metallurgy Education Department, Faculty of Technical Education,
Gazi University, 06500, Besevler-Ankara, Turkey
Received 20 September 2001; received in revised form 26 March 2002; accepted 28 March 2002

Abstract

In this study, the effect of shot peening on fatique strength of SAE 9245 steel, which is used in industry for spring
production, was investigated. Shot peening process was carried out to create residual compressive stresses caused by
deformation hardening at the surface and to remove decarburized layer of the surface resulted in heat treatment. The fatique
specimens were heated up to 850 jC and held at that temperature for 20 min to transform microstructure completely to austenite
and hardened by water quenching. The specimens were then tempered at 500 jC to eliminate residual stresses caused by the
quenching. A group of fatique specimens, only as heat-treated and other specimens shot peened by using an air high-pressure
type of equipment with CS 230 shot, was tested on Wöhler fatique test machine. The fatique results for unpeened and peened
conditions were compared. It was seen that shot peening improved the fatique life by about 30%.
D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Shot peening; Fatique strength; Residual compressive stresses

1. Introduction pressive stress has a marked beneficial effect on the

Shot peening can be defined as the process of work
hardening the surface of components by means of
propelled stream of spherical shot [1– 3]. This process
has now been used for many materials, including
high-strength steels, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys
and other engineering alloys [3]. It has been recently
demonstrated that [4] shot peening is also an effective
way of improving fatigue strength in P/M parts.
Fatigue strength of P/M parts is usually improved
by hot forging. Smith [5] showed that a mean com-
*
Tel.: +90-312-4399760; fax: +90-312-2120059.
E-mail address: stekeli@tef.gazi.edu.tr (S. Tekeli).
tensile fatigue life of notched specimens. An exter-
nally applied mean compressive stress rarely exits in
practice. However, the use of surface treatments
resulting in residual compressive surface stresses
ensures that a part placed in service under alternating
tensile stressing would in fact be working with com-
pressive stress. This condition is achieved by a num-
ber of treatments, of which shot peening is one [5].
A residual compressive stress on the surface has the
effect of increasing the intrinsic fatigue strength of the
surface and therefore would be beneficial in reducing
the probability of fatigue damage. By shot peening, the
surface layer of a material is caused to yield plastically
under the impact of shot. Residual compressive
stresses result from the inability of the plastically

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 S. Tekeli / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 604–608
deformed material to reaccommodate itself on the
elastic subsurface. Benefits due to shot peening are
increase in resistance to fatigue, stress corrosion crack-
ing, fretting, galling, erosion and closing of pores [6].
The shot peening process is carried out in a cabinet
using the shots and shot peening machine consisting of
a nozzle or a wheel. Sizes and types of shot to be
selected depend on the material to be peened, desired
peening intensity, fillet size, hole size, etc. For most
peening applications, the shot material is chilled cast
iron, cast steel, cut steel wire, glass beads and ceramic
beads. The size of the shots usually ranges from 0.18 to
2.4 mm in diameter. The shot peening machines used
are classified into three major categories as: pneumatic
(the shot is propelled by a high-pressure air stream in a
nozzle), centrifugal (the shot is propelled by a high-
speed rotating wheel) and water slurry machines.
In the shot peening process, there are many param-
eters that must be kept under control, these are the
peening intensity, peening coverage, saturation, shot
material, shot size, shot velocity, shot hardness, type
of peening machine and time of peening. The effec-
tiveness of peening depends in large measure on the
peening intensity and coverage. The shot peening
intensity is defined by Almen and Black [7] and
shows the amount of impact energy delivered to the
part by the shots. It is measured with special strips
made from SAE 1070 spring steels, which are called
Almen strips. There are three standard Almen strips
(Almen A, C and N). The extent of peening coverage
also can be important. Generally, peening to obtain
complete coverage or even redundant coverage is
preferred to partial coverage.
Among the machine parts, shot peening is mostly
applied for springs which are subjected to various
fatigue cycling. In the literature [8,9], the shot peening
process has been used for valve springs, leaf springs,
Belleville washers, clutches, connecting rods, crank
shafts, coil springs to improve the fatigue life, using
fatigue cycling tests such as reversed-bending, ten-
sion – tension, tension – compression and reversed tor-
sion. It was seen that with shot peening, considerable
improvements were achieved in fatigue strength in
these machine parts.
In this study, the effect of shot peening on fatigue
life of SAE 9245 steel, which is used in industry for
helisel spring production, was investigated. To deter-
mine the effect of peening intensity on the fatigue
605
strength, the fatigue specimens were also shot peened
at various times and air pressures. The fatigue results
for unpeened and peened conditions were compared.
It was seen that shot peening improved fatigue life by
about 30% and optimum peening intensities were in
the range 20 – 25 A.
2. Experimental procedure
The material used in this work was SAE 9245
steel. The chemical compositions of the steel is given
in Table 1.
Samples for fatigue tests were machined from bars
of 10-mm diameter in the as-rolled condition. The
dimension of the fatigue sample is given in Fig. 1. The
machined specimens of SAE 9245 were heated up to
850 jC and held at that temperature for 20 min to
transform microstructure completely to austenite.
Austenitization was carried out in a flowing argon
atmosphere. The austenited samples were hardened by
water quenching and then tempered for 1 h at 500 jC
to eliminate residual stresses caused by the quenching.
Temperatures were controlled to better than F 2j of
the set points. A small amount of decarburization was
unavoidable during heat treatments. Fatigue speci-
mens were ground and polished longitudinally to 1-
Am surface finish after heat treatment to give them a
high degree of surface finish and to remove the
decarburized layer. The fatigue specimens were then
peened in an air pressure type of equipment using S
230 type cast-steel shots. The shot peening equipment
consists of a pressure unit to which air is supplied at a
pressure of 30 to 60 psi and a closed cabinet housing
the peening nozzle. Angle between the shot path and
surface being peened was chosen to be 90j and the
distance between the nozzle and work piece was 100
mm. Fatigue specimens were rotated at 20 rev min 1
speed during peening operation.
Table 1
Chemical compositions of material
Material Chemical compositions (wt.%)
C Si Mn P S
SAE 9245 0.40 1.50 0.50 0.050 0.030
0.49 1.80 0.80 Maximum Maximum
606 S. Tekeli / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 604–608

direction of the specimens were measured using X-

ray technique. The depth distribution of the residual
stresses was determined by iterative electrolytic
removal of thin surface layers and subsequent X-ray
measurements.

Fig. 1. Dimension of fatigue sample. 3. Experimental results and discussion

Results of the rotating bending fatigue S– N curves

To see the effect of peening intensity on the fatigue
strength, fatigue specimens were peened at various air
pressures and peening times corresponding to 10, 15,
20, 25 and 30 A. More detail of peening intensity and
Almen test strips has been given elsewhere [4]. The
peening parameters used in this study are given in
Table 2. The procedure for measuring peening inten-
sity is as follows. An unpeened Almen strip is
fastened to a steel block and exposed to a stream of
shot for a given period of time and air pressure. After
removal from the steel block, the peened surface of
the strip curves in a convex manner. The height of this
curvature gives the shot peening intensity. The inten-
sity designation should include both the arc height and
the type of Almen strip used, e.g. 10 A intensity
shows that arc height is 0.010 in. and the strip used is
A. Fatigue tests were carried out in a Wöhler type
rotating bending fatigue testing machine at a fre-
quency of 1400 cycles/min. S –N curves were estab-
lished for unpeened and peened conditions. Fatigue
limit was taken as that stress value at which the
sample endured at least 3.106 cycles. Three tests were
carried out at each stress level and the results reported
are an average of the three tests.
In order to determine the differences in the residual
stress states, the residual stresses in longitudinal
for SAE 9245 steel are shown in Fig. 2. S– N curves
were determined for samples shot peened using size S
230 shot at the intensity of 25 A and 100% coverage.
Fatigue results of unpeened specimens were also
included as a base line to compare with the shot-
peened data. The arrows in the figure represent the
samples that did not break during the tests. It can be
easily seen from this figure that shot peening
improved fatigue life by 30%, compared with
unpeened specimens. The effectiveness of shot peen-
ing depends in large measure on various factors
including workpice material, shot material, shot size,
shot hardness, type of peening machine, time of
peening and peening intensity. Except peening inten-
sity, other factors have been extensively investigated
and optimized for various materials [4,10]. In the
present study, the effect of peening intensity on the
fatigue strength has been observed. To determine
optimum peening intensity, fatigue specimens were
shot peened at various air pressures and peening times
corresponding to 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 A (Table 2).
The results are shown in Fig. 3. Fatigue strength

Table 2
Shot peening parameters
Material Shot size Air Peening Peening
(mm) pressure time intensity
(psi) (second) (Almen A)
SAE 9245 S 230 30 30 10
(0.58 mm)
30 30 15
45 30 20
60 45 25
60 60 30 Fig. 2. S – N curves for shot peened and unpeened specimens.
 S. Tekeli / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 604–608
Fig. 3. Effect of peening intensity on fatigue strength.
increased from approximately 370 MPa for unpeened
specimens to a maximum of approximately 480 Mpa
for the specimens peened to 25 A. As can be seen
from Fig. 3, the maximum fatigue strength occurs at a
shot peening intensity in the range 20 –25 A. A further
increase in peening intensity resulted in a decrease of
fatigue strength. This decrease is a result of over-
peening. It is seen in Fig. 4 that shot peening had
different effect for specimens of different peening
intensities and thereby different depths of residual
compressive stress. The data obtained in this inves-
tigation indicated that for the peening intensities used,
the higher the intensities, the deeper depth of residual
stresses into the material found. Fig. 5 shows a typical
residual stress distribution for 25 A intensity. Com-
pressive residual stress values increased with depth to
the peak value and then decreased. The amount of
Fig. 4. Depth of residual stress as function of shot peening intensity.
607
Fig. 5. Residual stress profile in specimen shot peened at 25-A
intensity.
residual compressive stress from shot peening is
directly related to the reduction of the applied tensile
stress, which can cause fatigue failure. Hence, more
compressive stress results in greater improvements in
fatigue properties.
The reason for fatigue strength improvement by
shot peening can be attributed to the formation of
compressive residual stresses in the surface layer of the
material. The compressive residual stress usually
decreases the tensile stress in the component by
external forces and therefore increases the fatigue life
of the material. Also, as compressive stresses are
introduced into the surface and subsurface layers by
shot peening, fatigue cracks do not easily initiate in or
propagate through an area under compression, thus,
improvements in bending fatigue strength are
achieved. As to overpeening which can form cracks
at the surface of materials lowering its fatigue strength,
the intensity of shot peening can not be increased
beyond certain level without impairing the fatigue
properties. Although shot peening results in work-
hardening and beneficial compressive residual stress
at the surface, it also damages the surface making
craters and folds which causes crack origins. The part
of the craters and folds causing fatigue failures
increased with increasing shot peening intensity [11].
Overpeening also removes the surface deformed layer,
thus, the hardness increased layer produced by shot
peening is eroded by excessive shot peening. Similar
experimental observations of the effect of shot peening
have also been made for various materials by other
researchers [12,13].
608 S. Tekeli / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 604–608
4. Conclusions
(1) The influence of a shot peening treatment on
the bending strength of SAE 9245 spring steel has
been investigated. This treatment was seen to increase
the fatigue life by 30%. This improvement can be
attributed to the formation of compressive residual
stresses in the surface layer of the material.
(2) Optimum peening intensities were found to be
in the range 20 –25 A.
(3) A further increase in the peening intensity
beyond 20 – 25 A range resulted in a decrease in
fatigue strength. This decrease was due to overpeen-
ing which can form cracks at the surface and remove
the compressive residual stressed layer.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his gratitude to the
University of Gazi and Hema Gear Industry, Turkey,
for the support of the research programme and for the
provision of laboratory facilities.
References
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