An investigation of the peening effects on the residual stresses in friction stir welded 2195 and 7075 aluminum alloy joints

Surface treatment processes including laser and shot peening were applied to friction stir welded samples fabricated using aluminum alloys (AA) 2195 and 7075. Surface residual stress measurements on these samples were acquired using X-ray diffraction. Measurements of the through thickness bulk residual stresses were obtained using the contour method. The deepest compressive residual stresses were obtained with multiple layers of laser peening, and increased proportionally as the number of peening layers increased for AA 2195. For AA 7075, little change was noticed in the residual stresses as the number of peening layers increased. Interestingly, laser peening was shown to have less of an effect on residual stress near the edges of the weld joint where significant softening occurred.