The residual stress distribution of CO2 laser beam welded AISI 316 austenitic stainless steel and the effect of vibratory stress relief

An attempt is made to reduce the residual stresses by means of vibratory stress relief (VSR) by using an electromagnetic exciter. This paper examines the residual stresses induced in a CO2 laser welded AISI 316 austenitic stainless-steel plates. In this paper, a new approach of reliving stresses has been discussed using an electromagnetic exciter which is easy to apply and overcomes some of the limitations that other VSR procedures currently have. Various tests such as tensile test, impact test, micro- hardness test, and micro-resistivity test were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the residual stress reduction. The residual stress was relived from the AISI 316 welded plates with an average magnitude of 100 MPa.