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Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517 – 1525

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Overlapping rate effect on laser shock processing of 1045 steel by small spots
with Nd:YAG pulsed laser
Yongxiang Hu ⁎, Zhenqiang Yao
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
Received 18 May 2007; accepted in revised form 3 July 2007
Available online 12 July 2007

Abstract

Lower power lasers operating at higher frequencies, which are much more reliable and economical, have been explored for laser shock
processing to improve fatigue and wearing resistance of metals. Laser shock processing with a Q-switched Nd:YAG pulsed laser was attained by
the overlap of small laser spots for the treatment of AISI 1045 steel. The changes of mechanical properties of the specimen treated by different
overlapping rates were investigated by both experiments and numerical simulation. Surface quality was essentially unaffected after treatment.
Plastic affected depth was much shallower than that obtained with larger spot sizes, due to rapid attenuation of shock waves. Induced residual
stress field was uniform on the top surface and was enhanced with the increase of overlapping rate. Surface micro-hardness reached a larger value
than that reached on the untreated region and was also improved with the increase of overlapping rates. A plastically deformed martensite
transformation zone was found in an extremely thin layer near the top surface due to the heat effect.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Laser shock processing; Overlap; Numerical simulation; Residual stress

1. Introduction power lasers operating at higher frequencies, which are much

Laser shock processing (LSP) has been proposed as a
competitive alternative technology to classical treatments for
improving fatigue, corrosion and wearing resistance of metals.
The effect on the material is mainly achieved through the
mechanical effect produced by the shock wave, not a thermal
effect from heating of the surface by the laser beam. It is well
suited for precisely controlled treatment of localized fatigue
critical areas, such as holes, notches, fillets and welds [1].
Typical application of process utilizes a pulsed laser system
providing energy outputs up to 50 J per beam at frequencies up
to 0.25 Hz. The laser pulse width is generally within the range
of 6 to 40 ns. But the cost and reliability of these laser systems
has limited the wide application of laser shock processing so far
due to various difficulties in making lasers with pulse energies
up to 50 J at a higher repetition rate [1]. More recently, lower
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 3420 6583; fax: +86 21 3420 6315.
E-mail address: huyx@sjtu.edu.cn (Y. Hu).
0257-8972/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2007.07.008
more reliable and economical, have been explored for laser
shock processing. Because these lasers operate at less than 10 J
per pulse, and often at less than 1 J per pulse, spot sizes should
be much smaller about 1 mm radius or less to ensure a sufficient
power density output [2]. A large area of specimen can be
treated by lower power lasers with the overlap of small spots.
Moreover, investigation on the LSP with small spots will be
beneficial for the treatment of meso-specimen and it will be also
useful for the optimization of laser conditions when higher
power laser systems become widely productive available.
Several investigations have been reported about the treatment
with small spots for laser shock processing in recent years. Sano,
et al. found that it was possible to attain favorable compressive
residual stress field on the surface layer of 304 stainless steel
with 200 mJ, 8 ns laser pulses [3]. Ganzales, et al. extensively
investigated the effect of laser shock processing on fatigue crack
growth, fracture toughness and wear properties of 6061-T6
aluminum alloy with 1.2 J, 8 ns laser pulses by a Q-switched Nd:
YAG laser operating at 10 Hz [4–6]. They reported that all these
properties could be greatly improved by the treatment. Ocana, et
1518 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525

al. presented a discussion about the residual stress field induced

by laser shock with adjacent pulses covering an extended surface
[7]. But it did not give some further investigations about the
modeling strategy considering practical process of treatment.
Therefore, although some effort has been devoted to the laser
shock processing with small spots, all these investigations are
still elementary until now. Systematic work is greatly needed
addressing to the effect of overlapping rates on the resulting
mechanical and metallurgical properties, the attenuation of
shock waves and numerical simulation of overlapping process.
The object of this research was to examine the effect of laser
shock processing with the overlap of small laser spots on the
changes of mechanical properties of AISI 1045 steel treated by a
Q-switched Nd:YAG pulsed laser. Residual stress, surface quality,
micro-hardness and microscopic structure were investigated with Fig. 2. Schematic of overlapping laser shock processing.
different overlapping rates. A complete model was developed to
simulate the process of overlap. The predicted residual stress field
was analyzed and compared with the experimental results. overlay and opaque coating should be selected carefully to bear
successive laser shocks.
2. Physical principle of laser shock processing
3. Experiment setup and procedures
Laser shock processing originates from the ability to drive a
high amplitude shock wave into a material by a short pulsed laser The schematic experimental setup is shown in Fig. 3. The
(typically about 1–50 ns) with high power density (typically more specimen was placed on a sample holder and was pressed by a
than 1GW/cm2). Typical application of the process is to carry out keep plate. The sample holder was mounted on a motor
under a “confined” regime configuration, as shown in Fig. 1. The controlled two-dimensional stage with 15 μm resolution. A
metallic surface to be treated is first locally coated with an opaque black tape about 109 μm thick worked as the opaque coating. It
coating and then covered by a transparent overlay which is a was thick enough to maintain coating integrity for multiple laser
dielectric material transparent to laser beam (such as water). shocks during the overlapping treatment. Water was used as the
Opaque coating acts as a sacrificial material to avoid the heat transparent overlay to confine the generated plasma, because it
effect induced by laser irradiation. A thin layer of it vaporizes on had a higher threshold for dielectric breakdown than many
absorption of laser energy. Transparent overlay confines the crystalline material (for example, quartz) and it was much easier
thermally expanding vapor and plasma against the surface of the to apply than solid materials[8]. A special device was used to
target material, thus generating higher pressure with an intensity make water work in continuous circulation. Water was flowing
of several GPa exceeding the yield strength of specimen. The over the surface from a nozzle and was drained by a hole at the
specimen will undergo extremely high strain-rate (greater than bottom of the container. The device can produce a controlled
106 s− 1) during a short period of time and be dynamically yielded. water jet to form a thin water layer on the surface of specimen
It will induce the plastic deformation and favorable compressive by adjusting water velocity and jet direction. And it can avoid
residual stresses near the top surface to increase the fatigue life of water stagnancy with ablation dusts where parasitic breakdown
specimens [1]. effects. Many water drops would be induced by the shock wave
For the area covered by one laser spot is greatly limited, under water during treatment, so an electric drier was used as an
especially for the small spot, practical application of laser shock air blast to protect the optical system.
processing is usually to attain the treatment of large area by a
great number of impacts applied successively to the surface of
specimen in two dimensions, as shown in Fig. 2. Transparent

Fig. 1. Schematic of laser shock processing. Fig. 3. Schematic of experimental setup of LSP.
 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525
Fig. 4. Schematic of the treated specimen.
Round bars of AISI 1045 steel were machined to obtain
specimens for investigation with 46 mm in diameter and 5 mm
in thickness, as shown in Fig. 4. The surface of specimen was
pre-conditioned by grinding work toward y-direction. And then
they were annealed by keeping at the temperature about 550 °C
for an hour to discard the residual stress before treatment. The
laser irradiated region ax × ay was about 15 mm × 15 mm on the
central area of the specimen.
Overlapping rate, denoted by η, was defined to describe and
control the distribution of laser pulses on the impact surface,
which is expressed as
D medium and the target as well is on-dimensional. It is widely used
g¼  100k ð1Þ
2R
where R is the spot radius, Δ is the coincidence length of two
successive laser spots.
Overlap of laser pulses was attained by coupled computer
control of the velocity of continuous scanning Vx in x-direction
and of the step interval Sy in y-direction. Every step along y-
direction was activated after a continuous movement with the
required distance in x-direction. Giving overlapping rates ηx, ηy
in two directions, parameters required by numerical control
system can be calculated as follows:
Vx ¼ Sx =ð1=f Þ ¼ 2Rð1  gx Þf


Sy ¼ 2R 1  gy
Ni ¼ ðai =Si Þroundoff þ1ði ¼ x; yÞ
where f is the repetition rate of the pulsed laser, Si (i = x, y) are
the distance between two successive laser spots, Ni (i = x, y) are
the number of laser spots in two directions to control the loop in
the numerical control codes. Overlapping rates along x-axis and
y-axis direction were set to be equal for our experiments.
The laser source was a Q-switched Nd:YAG pulsed laser
operating at repetition frequency f = 10 Hz. The pulse duration
was about 10 ns in FWHM and the temporal profile was
Gaussian spatial distribution. The wavelength of 532 nm,
generated by a second harmonic generator from the fundamen-
tal wavelength of 1064 nm, was selected to enable the laser
beam to propagate longer through water with lower absorption
of the beam energy [9]. The pulse energy of laser output was
1519
measured by an energy meter. And the laser beam was focused
by a convergent lens (focal length = 276.6 mm), the vertical
position of which can be adjusted to obtain the desired spot
diameter and power density working together with a variable
laser controller. The output pulse energy 1.03 J and spot radius
1 mm were selected for experiments with overlapping rates
η = 50%, 70% and 90%.
4. Numerical simulation of overlap process
4.1. Simulation procedure
Numerical simulation of laser shock processing should be
consisted of two steps as shown in Fig. 5. Complete numerical
simulation requires a sequential application of two sub-models:
a confined plasma development model to predict the time
history of shock pressure in terms of laser conditions firstly and
then a FEM model to investigate the mechanical behavior of the
specimen with the shock pressure as an input.
4.2. Modeling of confined plasma development
Much effort has been devoted to modeling the interaction of the
laser beam and the surface of specimen. A one-dimensional model
proposed by Fabbro et al. [10], assumed that the laser irradiation is
uniform and therefore shock wave propagation in the confining
in LSP of normal beam size (millimeter scale). Zhang and Yao [11]
improved this model by including more conservation equations
and some other modifications to satisfy the special requirements of
microscale laser shock processing. Wu and Shin [12] proposed a
self-closed thermal model for LSP under the water confinement
regime configuration. They considered most of relevant physical
processes for laser ablation, plasma formation and expansion.
There aren't any free variables in the model compared with others.
One-dimensional model proposed by Fabbro [10] is adopted
to predict the shock pressure profile numerically. Laser
irradiation first vaporizes the surface layer of the opaque coating
during the treatment. The vaporized material evolves into
ð2Þ
plasma at the interface of the opaque coating and transparent
overlay very quickly. The time for the formation of plasma is
ð3Þ
much short. So the model assumes that a certain amount of
ð4Þ plasma exists instantaneously once the laser is on. When plasma
is formed, its volume expands and its pressure increases with the
Fig. 5. Structure for numerical simulation of laser shock processing.
1520 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525

confinement of the transparent overlay. A portion of the incident FEM analysis procedure of laser shock processing should be
laser power density I (t) is absorbed by the plasma as composed of two distinct parts to obtain an absolutely stable
residual stress field, which are dynamic analysis and static
Ip ðt Þ ¼ APðt ÞI ðt Þ ð5Þ analysis. Dynamic analysis performed by explicit codes LS-
where AP(t) is the absorption coefficient and t is the time. The DYNA was adopted to simulate the propagation of the shock
plasma pressure p and thickness L during laser irradiation are wave to obtain the dynamic response of material. When the
calculated as functions of time t with following equations: dynamic stress state became approximately stable, all transient
stress was imported into implicit codes ANSYS to perform static
dLðt Þ 2 analysis to obtain the residual stress field in static equilibrium.
¼ pð t Þ ð6Þ
dt Z
4.3.2. Constitutive model
2 1
¼ þ
1
ð7Þ The strain rate can exceed 106 s− 1 within the specimen
Z Z1 Z2 because of the strong and short pressure. The Johnson–Cook
strain sensitive plasticity model is used for problems where
dLðt Þ 3 d strain rates vary over a large range. If ε̄ is the equivalent plastic
I p ð t Þ ¼ pð t Þ þ ½pðt ÞLðt Þ: ð8Þ
dt 2a dt strain, the Von Mises flow stress σ, according to the Johnson–
the shock impedance Zi is defined as Zi =ρiDi, where ρi and Di are Cook model, is given by [20]:
the density and the shock velocity, respectively. The subscripts i
: ⁎
r ¼ ð A þ BP e n Þ 1 þ Cln P
e ð1  ðT ⁎ Þm Þ ð12Þ
represents opaque coating (i = 1) or transparent overlay (i = 2). The
:P⁎ :P P:
plasma is considered to be perfect gas with corrective factor α where e ¼ e= e 0 is the dimensionless strain rate for
:
P
corresponding to the ratio of the thermal to plasma internal energy. e 0 ¼ 1:0s1 , A, B, C, n and m are considered to be material
Assuming adiabatic cooling of the plasma, p and L after constants. The relationship between the absolute temperature T and
laser irradiation can be obtained by solving following equations the thermal softening term T⁎ is expressed as
coupled with Eqs. (5)–(8):
  T ⁎ ¼ ðT  T0 Þ=ðTm  T0 Þ ð13Þ
L ðT Þ g
pð t Þ ¼ pð T Þ ð9Þ where T0 is the room temperature and Tm the melting point of the
Lð t Þ
specific material.
 1=gþ1 Because heat effects and damage induced by shock pressure
gþ1
Lðt Þ ¼ LðT Þ 1 þ ðt  T Þ ð10Þ can be ignored for laser shock processing, a simplified Johnson–
2s Cook model used for simulation can be expressed as follows:
where γ is the specific-heat ratio, T is the laser switched-off  : 4
time defined as T = 2τ, where τ is the FWHM of laser pulses. r ¼ ð A þ BP e n Þ 1 þ Cln P
e ð14Þ
The shock pressure p(t) was solved numerically with the
laser pulse profile and material properties according to the The material properties of AISI 1045 steel required for the
experimental conditions, as shown in Fig. 6. The spatial profile FEM simulation were shown in Table 1.
of the laser beam should also be considered. According to works
of Zhang and Yao [11], shock pressure obeys Gaussian spatial 4.3.3. Loading
distribution, but with its 1/e2 radius equals to 2R , where R is the Shock pressure induced by overlapping LSP can be
spot radius. Let r be the radial distance from the spot center, the simulated by applying a surface load to the action zone in
spatially uniform shock pressure p(t) relates to the spatially order for each impact. The time interval between every two
non-uniform shock pressure is successive impacts was selected long enough to ensure the
 
r2
pðr; t Þ ¼ pðt Þexp  2 ð11Þ
2R

4.3. Modeling of the shock wave propagation

4.3.1. Analysis procedure

Finite element method(FEM) is first introduced by Braisted
and Brockman [13] to investigate the mechanical behavior of
the material treated by LSP. From then on, several researchers
have adopted FEM tool to simulate the laser generated shock
waves propagating into different metal materials [11,13–18].
Wu and Shin firstly proposed a complete and self-closed model
for LSP from incident pulse to residual stress field with their
further research work [19]. Fig. 6. Temporal profile of laser intensity and shock pressure (AP = 0.9, α = 0.1).
 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525 1521

Table 1
Mechanical properties of 1045 steel [24]
Properties Value Unit
Density, ρ 7850 kg m− 3
Poisson's ratio, ν 0.30
Elastic modulus, E 206 GPa
A 507 MPa
B 320 MPa
n 0.28
C 0.064

saturation of the plastic deformations occurred in the specimen

for each impact.
Shock pressure calculated by Eq. (11) can only be applied to
the element surface in the ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Suppose that the
origin the local coordinate system is at the center of the laser
spot, as shown in Fig. 7. Let (xi, yi) be the node position of
loading surface for element i. Then the radial distance ri from
the spot center to the element i can be calculated as follows:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x þ x 2 y þ y 2
i iþ1 i iþ1
ri ¼ þ ð15Þ
2 2
Substituting this term for r in Eq. (11), yields the time
dependant and spatial non-uniform shock pressure to apply on
the loading surface of each element.

4.3.4. Finite element model

The situation envisaged is that of a large number of identical
and overlapped pressure pulse impacting the specimen
successively in two directions, as shown in Fig. 2. Full
modeling the process based on the given experimental
conditions or practical production will make the model time-
wasting and so large that the simulation can hardly be
accomplished by computer. So, some necessary simplification
should be introduced to ensure the calculation efficiency
without badly decreasing calculation accuracy.
According to the distribution of laser spots on the top surface
of the material as shown in Fig. 8(a), it has two characteristics in
geometry assuming that the specimen is a semi-infinite body:
Fig. 8. Finite element model of overlapping laser shock processing; (a)
characteristic of laser spots distribution, (b) symmetry cell.
Sm,nk in the treated surface can be considered to be
representative to investigate material properties treated by
overlapping LSP.
ii) The impact surface is symmetric in two directions with the
symmetric axes Xi, Yj (i, j = 1, 2, 3…). So, the specimen
impacted by overlapping laser spots can be divided into
multiple identical cells Aij (i, j = 1, 2, 3…) regardless of the
impact sequence, as show in Fig. 8 (a).

i) The domain covered by each laser spot in the impact
surface, denoted by Sm,nk , is identical. Therefore, arbitrary
Fig. 7. Schematic for the radial distance of each element.
The domain disturbed by stress waves is confined to a finite
domain for each impact for the quickly attenuation of shock
waves [21]. The properties in the domain Sijc at the center of the
symmetry cell will not be affected by other impacts out of the cell
if the dimension of the cell is large enough. Therefore, all
symmetry cells can be considered to be identical and be treated
simultaneous with several laser sources. This has led us to apply
the plane symmetry on the four lateral faces of the symmetry
cell, which would reduce the modeling considerably. For each
symmetry cell, impacts should be applied in sequence according
to the practical conditions to investigate properties in the domain
Sijc for numerical simulation. Generally, L and H are much
smaller than the dimension of the specimen. Therefore, non-
reflecting boundary conditions are also applied on the bottom
face and four lateral faces to prevent stress wave reflections from
re-entering the model and contaminating the results. The
1522 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525

symmetric boundary conditions can be applied to four

lateral faces.

The size of symmetry cell L was selected by numerical

analyzing the residual stress distribution in the specimen by two
impacts with different distances. Suppose that Δd was the
distance from the center of Sijc to an arbitrary spot center out of
symmetry cell. It suggested that when Δd ≥ 2R, the properties in
the domain Sijc was not affected by other impacts out of the
symmetry cell and also two impacts in order could be thought to
be applied simultaneous. Therefore, the dimension L of
symmetric cell should be greater than 2R. Considering symmetry
properties of the distribution of laser spots for different
overlapping rates, the smallest symmetry cell for η = 50% should
be L = 2R (laser spots: 3 × 3 array), for η = 70% should be
L = 3.6R (laser spots: 7 × 7 array) and for η = 90% should be
L = 3.6R (laser spots: 19 × 19 array), as shown in Fig. 9.

5. Results and discussions

5.1. Residual stress

Residual stress was measured by the X-ray diffraction stress

analyzer X-350A with the conventional sin2ψ method. X-ray
beam diameter was about 2 mm. X-ray source was Cr-Kα ray
and the diffraction plane was α phase (211) plane.
Measurement points were on the centerlines of the impact
region, as shown in Fig. 10. The point, denoted by 0, was used
to characterize the initial stress profiles of specimen. For in
depth, residual stress was obtained by alternately repeating the
measurement with the surface layer removed by electrolytic
polishing.
Fig. 11 showed the distribution of x component residual
stresses σx in depth for different overlapping rates from both
simulation and experimental measurement with initial stress
removed. Because the spot radius of X-ray beam was about
2 mm, residual stress from experiments was an average value of
the region covered by one spot. Simulated results should be
prepared to be consistent with the measuring conditions to
validate the model developed. So, residual stresses in depth
from simulation took an average of five different positions
(0, 0), (± 0.5R, 0), (0, ± 0.5R).

Fig. 9. Symmetry cells for simulation of different overlapping rates; (a) η = 50%,
(b) η = 70%, (c) η = 90%.

dimensions of the symmetry cell are L × L × H, where L is cell

length and H is the cell height, as outlined in Fig. 8 (b). The
dimension L should satisfy two following conditions:

i) The properties in the domain Sijc should not be affected by

other impacts out of the symmetry cell. This will allow us
to select the representative domain Sijc in the symmetric
cell to investigate specimen properties treated by the
overlapping LSP.
ii) Impacts in the same position of different symmetric cells
can be thought to be applied simultaneous. Thus, Fig. 10. Arrangement of measuring points for X-ray diffraction.
 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525
Fig. 11. Residual stress distribution in depth along z-axis for different
overlapping rates.
As shown in Fig. 11, the annealed sample material was
approximately in the zero stress state, so the effect of initial
stress on the propagation of the shock waves could be ignored.
Plastically affected depth was only about 200 μm. It was much
shallower than that with larger spot sizes about 1 cm. This was
because the laser spot for experiments was small. In the case of
small spots, shock wave expands like a sphere, which attenuates
rapidly than a planar front in the case of large spots [1,21].
Therefore, sphere shock wave propagates shorter into the metal
and the plastically affected depth is limited for small laser spots.
The predicted residual stresses were reasonably consistent
with those from experiments for η = 50%, 70%, except for an
extremely thin layer about 20 μm near the top surface. The
experiment results showed that the compressive residual stress
profile increased with the increasing depth for a short distance
below the surface to a maximum, and then the stress decreased.
However, the predicted stress was highest at the surface and
decreased gradually with distance below the surface. It
suggested that the absorbent coating for experiments may not
completely isolate the target material form heat effect, although
it can ensure the integrity to protect the specimen from being
melted or evaporated. This phenomenon would be proved by
further analysis about microscopic structure in the Section 5.4.
Heat effect, which was not considered in the model
developed, would induce a tensile residual stress with the
rapid cooling of the material when the irradiation of laser pulse
Fig. 12. Experimental measured residual stress on the top surface(x-scanning
direction, y-overlapping direction), h = 50%.
1523
Fig. 13. Residual stress distribution on the top surface for different overlapping
rates.
was over. The compressive residual stress induced by the pure
mechanical effect was attenuated by the tensile stress.
Therefore, the developed model could not accurately predict
the residual stress field for a higher overlapping rate η = 90%, as
shown in Fig. 11, because the heat effect was greatly enhanced.
Heat effect has been considered in the simulation of laser shock
processing without absorbent coating [22,23]. However,
because the rapid evaporation of absorbent coating irradiated
by a short pulsed laser is very complex, optimization of the
thickness of coating is very difficult. There is still a long way to
model LSP including heat effect accurately.
Fig. 12 showed the experimental measured residual stress on
the top surface for η = 50%. A uniform residual stress field was
induced on the impact surface by overlapping laser shock
processing. In addition, Fig. 13 showed the simulated residual
stress along x axis on the top surface for different overlapping
rates. The results showed that increasing the overlapping rate
can enhance the residual stress and can also make it more
uniform.
5.2. Surface quality characterization
Surface morphology of samples both with and without LSP
treatment was qualified by the roughness measurement. The
measurement was performed with a roughness meter JB-3C.
The assessment length for measurements was 4.8 mm and the
sample length was 0.8 mm. In the case of treated specimens, the
direction of measurement was parallel to the scanning direction,
which was perpendicular to the grinding direction. A summary
of roughness measurements with different overlapping rates
was given in Table 2. For the treatment of 1045 steel, the results
showed that there was a little modification in the surface quality
and the surface quality was essentially unaffected. Also the
Table 2
Roughness of specimens for different overlapping rates rate η
Overlapping Raμm
rate η
Before treatment After treatment
50% 0.830 0.728
70% 1.08 1.049
90% 1.054 1.08
1524 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525
surface quality for η = 50%, 70% was improved a bit by
treatment. This could be because successive impacts perpen-
dicular to the grinding direction decreased the peak height of
surface profile induced by grinding. The results were different
from the results presented by Santana and Gonzalez for the
treatment of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy [4], which indicated that
the roughness of the specimen surface became rather higher.
This was because 6061-T6 aluminum alloy was much softer and
easier to be deformed than 1045 steel.
5.3. Micro-hardness
Micro-hardness modifications induced by laser shock
processing were investigated by HX-1000B Digital Micro-
Hardness Tester. The measurements were made with 200 g load
and 20 s hold time.
Profiles of the micro-hardness along x and y direction on the
impact surface were shown in Fig. 14(a). The distance between
every two measuring points was about 1.5 mm. For micro-hardness
in depth, the surface was machined to be wedge-shape with 3° by
linear cutting to enlarge the length in depth for measurement. The
results for the micro-hardness in depth were shown in Fig. 14(b).
From these figures, following observations can be made:
(1) Hardness took a constant value about 190 HV on the
substrate material. After treated, the hardness reached a
larger value than that reached on the untreated region.
And the hardness decreased to the baseline of specimen in
depth at a distance about 0.2 mm from the top surface.
Fig. 14. Micro-hardness profile with different overlapping rates in the impact
region; (a) on top surface (x-scanning direction, y-overlapping direction), (b) in
depth.
Fig. 15. Metallograph of the cross section of the specimen, h = 70%, ×500.
(2) Surface micro-hardness was improved with the increase
of the overlapping rate. And the distributions of micro-
hardness on the top surface were relatively homogeneous
both for x and y directions.
5.4. Microscopic structure analysis
Microscopic examinations were performed to analyze the
metallurgical structure in the cross section of the specimen.
Fig. 15 showed the typical results. A martensite transformation
zone was found near the top surface about 20 μm thick. It
demonstrated that the top surface of the specimen was heat affected
during the treatment. It was consistent with the analysis of the
residual stress field in the Section 5.1 because martensite phase was
reverted from the heated steel by a rapid cooling. The martensite
phase was beneficial to improve the mechanical properties of the
impact surface. Moreover, the martensite was also presented to be
plastically deformed by the impact.
Despite of a thin layer of martensite transformation zone, no
metallurgical changed can be found in the shock hardened
region, which appears to be the typical phases of the annealed
1045 steel composed of ferrite and perlite. Therefore, the
improvement of micro-hardness near the top surface can be
attributed to the plastic deformation induced by the impact and
the very thin martensite transformation zone. Because the
plastic deformation was not remarkable and the effect of
martensite transformation zone was limited, the micro-hardness
discussed in the Section 5.3 was not greatly enhanced.
6. Conclusions
Laser shock processing with small energy output laser was
attained by the overlap of small laser spots for the treatment of
AISI 1045 steel. The mechanical properties of specimens treated
by different overlapping rates were experimental investigated. A
complete model with symmetry cell was developed to simulate
the process of overlap. Following conclusions can be made
according to the investigation:
(1) The residual stress induced on the top surface of 1045
steel was uniform and plastic affected depth was much
shallower than that obtained with the larger spot sizes, due
 Y. Hu, Z. Yao / Surface & Coatings Technology 202 (2008) 1517–1525
to rapid attenuation of shock waves. Increasing the
overlapping rate could lead to much more uniform and
greater residual stress field.
(2) There was a little modification in the surface quality for
1045 steel after treatment and the surface quality was
essentially unaffected.
(3) There was a plastically deformed martensite transforma-
tion zone at the impact surface about 20 μm thick because
the surface of the specimen was heat affected during the
treatment. It is beneficial to improve the mechanical
properties of the impact surface. But heat effect will
induce tensile stresses, which made the compressive
residual stress profile increase with increasing depth for a
short distance below the surface to a maximum.
(4) After treatment, the hardness reached a larger value than
that reached on the untreated region. And Surface micro-
hardness has improved with the increase of overlapping
rate. Because the plastic deformation was not remarkable
and the effect of martensite transformation zone was
limited, the micro-hardness was not greatly enhanced.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance in the
residual stress measurement with X-ray diffraction experiments
from Prof. Chuanhai Jiang, School of Materials Science and
Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This work has
been supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of
China, Grant No. 2006CB705407.
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