Abstract
The refill friction stir spot welding (refill FSSW) process has evolved from classic friction stir welding, which is already used in the aerospace industry. Compared to riveting, the process has the advantage of avoiding stress concentration by eliminating holes. In addition, weight can be saved compared to riveting. However, the fatigue strength of refill FSSW joints under cyclic loading is only 15% of the ultimate lap shear strength, which is lower compared to the value of 22% for standard riveted joints. To address this challenge, laser shock peening (LSP) is investigated as an innovative residual stress engineering technique to improve the fatigue performance of refill FSSW AA2024-T3 joints. Two application scenarios are investigated, one investigating the LSP technique as a complementary manufacturing process to the refill FSSW technology, and the other investigating the LSP technique as a repair process for damaged joints. The fatigue test results showed that the application of the LSP treatment can significantly improve the fatigue behaviour of the refill FSSW overlap joints. In terms of Basquin fatigue strength, the LSP treatment resulted in an improvement by a factor of 1.51 and 2.82 for the one- and two-sided LSP-treated specimens, respectively. The life of specimens with refill FSSW joints that had been specifically pre-damaged by stopping the fatigue test at approximately 50%, 75% and 83% of the number of cycles to the Basquin fatigue strength, applying LSP treatment and continuing the fatigue test was also significantly extended. The results of this study show that LSP is a very effective technique for significantly extending the fatigue life of refill FSSW joints. Therefore, the combination of these two manufacturing processes, refill FSSW and LSP, represents a promising technology for industrial companies that require high fatigue performance for their structural components.
