Numerical and experimental analysis of surface roughness generated by shot peening

► Numerical simulation of shot peening is adopted to study surface roughness development. ► The numerical results correspond quiet well with the roughness values measured experimentally on shot peened specimens. ► Different analyses with a wide range of peening parameters have been performed to study the effect of peening condition. ► Each studied roughness parameter, including Ra, Rc and Rz, shows a diverse evolution trend vs. process time. ► The developed model can be used to assess the dependency of surface roughness on various process and material parameters.