The effect of plasma detonation parameters on residual stresses developed in the plasma modified layer

• Residual stress in compound zone determined by XRD varied up to −1 GPa based on process parameters.
• Stress data indicated homogenous and uniform stress in compound zone in agreement with EDS results.
• Stresses decreased with increasing nozzle distance and decreasing battery capacity due to decreasing thermal stress.
• The increase in number of pulse from 5 to 10 resulted in decrease in stress due to annihilation of deformation stress.

The surface modification of the AISI 4140 steel by pulse plasma detonation process resulted in residual stresses. The residual stresses in modified surfaces measured using XRD tilting technique were determined for different process parameters. The results indicated that residual stress developed in modified surface increased from −200 MPa to −1000 MPa with decreasing in nozzle distance and increased from −554 MPa to −823 MPa with increasing in battery capacity. In shortest nozzle distance (60 mm), the increasing in number of pulse from 5 to 10 resulted in decreasing residual stress from −1000 MPa to −340 MPa. It was clearly demonstrated at first time that pulse plasma detonation process parameters significantly influenced the value of residual stress.