Digital Simulation of Peened Aluminum Alloy Thin-Walled Parts Based on the Coupled FEM-DEM Model

ZENG Siming; WANG Zhou; WANG Xiaoli; SUN Song; CHEN Yanhua; ZHAO Yuanyuan; HOU Dongmei; GAN Jin

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.07.009

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Surface Technology ›› 2026, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (7) : 110-123. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.07.009

Surface and Interface Strengthening Technology

Digital Simulation of Peened Aluminum Alloy Thin-Walled Parts Based on the Coupled FEM-DEM Model

ZENG Siming¹, WANG Zhou^1,2,*, WANG Xiaoli¹, SUN Song¹, CHEN Yanhua³, ZHAO Yuanyuan², HOU Dongmei⁴, GAN Jin⁵

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Abstract

In order to elucidate the deformation law of aluminum alloy thin-walled parts after shot peening (SP) and uncover the redistribution of residual stress fields along the depth direction during deformation, a FEM-DEM coupled SP model for aluminum alloy thin-walled parts was established based on ABAQUS finite element software. SP induced plastic deformation on the surface of thin-walled parts through the impact of numerous shots, introducing a compressive residual stress field. The residual stress generated by SP in the thin-walled parts was released by modifying the boundary conditions after SP, resulting in deformation and the accuracy of the model in predicting the residual stress after SP and deformation characteristics was thoroughly verified through a series of meticulously conducted experiments. The simulation model was employed to investigate the residual stress field of these parts and the deformation they underwent after SP. Furthermore, a detailed analysis was carried out to examine the deformation and the redistribution of the residual stress field. This analysis was conducted by systematically varying the process parameters, including shot velocity, shot diameter, and the number of shots, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of their impact on the material's behavior. Compared with the experimental results, the simulation results achieved satisfactory accuracy with minimal errors: the error of maximum compressive residual stress ($\sigma_{\mathrm{Max}}^{\mathrm{RS}}$) was ‒7.6%, the error of surface compressive residual stress ($\sigma_{\mathrm{Surf}}^{\mathrm{RS}}$) was ‒0.7%, and the error of arc height at saturation was 4.7%. These results confirmed the model's good accuracy of both residual stress and deformation. The increase of shot velocity, shot diameter and number of shots enhanced the SP strength, which led to the increase of $\sigma_{\mathrm{Surf}}^{\mathrm{RS}}$. However, this compressive stress attenuated due to the redistribution of residual stress field upon constraint release, with the maximum attenuation reaching approximately 50%. Upon release of external constraints, a characteristic tensile residual stress field was generated within the subsurface region of the thin-walled specimen to mechanically equilibrate the near-surface compressive residual stress. When the induced subsurface tensile stress attained a magnitude of approximately 10 MPa, a tertiary compressive stress regime became manifest in deeper material zones, exhibiting significantly diminished stress intensity relative to the primary surface compressive field. There was an obvious diminishing marginal benefit of increasing the SP effect by increasing shot velocity, shot diameter and number of shots. Under the given peening conditions (shot velocity = 80 m/s, shot mass flow rate = 0.4 kg/min, shot diameter = 0.5 mm), the analysis demonstrated that when the number of shots increased from 10 000 to 20 000, the maximum longitudinal deformation rose by 67%. In comparison, a similar increase in the number of shots from 30 000 to 40 000 resulted in only 22% growth in deformation, revealing a distinct nonlinear response characteristic. Therefore, it was not advisable to blindly increase these parameters in engineering to improve the SP effects. In summary, the investigation has been conducted on the deformation law of aluminum alloy thin-walled parts after SP and the redistribution law of the residual stress field during the stress release process after the release of constraints from peened thin-walled parts, enhancing the relevant theories of SP process of aluminum alloy thin-walled parts and providing a digital research approach.

Key words

shot peening (SP) forming process / coupled FEM-DEM model / SP of aluminum alloy thin-walled parts / residual stress distribution / deformation law of SP forming process / precision peen forming

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ZENG Siming, WANG Zhou, WANG Xiaoli, SUN Song, CHEN Yanhua, ZHAO Yuanyuan, HOU Dongmei, GAN Jin. Digital Simulation of Peened Aluminum Alloy Thin-Walled Parts Based on the Coupled FEM-DEM Model[J]. Surface Technology. 2026, 55(7): 110-123

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