Investigation of graded strengthened hyper-deformed surfaces by impact treatment: micro-percussion testing

In the industry, mechanical surface treatments could improve the mechanical behaviour of materials by the means of local hyper-deformation and graded strengthening. Micro-percussion test represents an interesting case scenario to emulate these kinds of conventional treatments (shot-peening, SMAT, roller-burnishing, etc) and go further on microstructural and mechanical characterization at local and global scales. For this technique, every impact is made at the same position by a rigid conical indenter, controlling the number, angle and velocity of impacts. The main issue of this work is to establish a complete description of the transformed microstructures; to understand the mechanisms involved on the formation and growth of refined structures; to make a parametric sensitivity analysis of different impact conditions.