Numerical simulation of laser shock processing of metal alloys

Laser shock processing has been proposed as a competitive alternative technology to classical treatments for improving fatigue and wear resistance of metals, and has more recently been developed as a practical process amenable to production technology. For this reason, a decided attempt has been envisaged on the line of the numerical predictive assessment of the effects induced by the LSP technique in some representative metal alloys as a means of enabling a method for practical technology evaluation and optimization amenable to experimental validation. Concretely, the 3D analysis of material deformations and residual stresses fields has been envisaged and some representative results are presented