International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37

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Investigation of residual stress relaxation under cyclic load

a,* b
Wyman Z. Zhuang , Gary R. Halford
a
Airframes and Engines Division, Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory, Melbourne 3207, Australia
b
NASA Glenn Research Center, MS 49-7, 21000 Brookpark Rd., Cleveland, OH 44135-3191, USA

Abstract

Compressive residual stresses induced by mechanical surface treatment such as shot peening, autofretage, hole expansion, laser
shock peening, and low-plasticity burnishing can be highly beneficial to fatigue resistance. Cyclic relaxation of compressive residual
stress, however, reduces the benefit. An analytical model is proposed for estimation of residual stress relaxation. Parameters con-
sidered by the model include the magnitude and distribution of the residual stress, the degree of cold working required, the applied
alternating and mean stresses, and the number of applied loading cycles. An elasto–plastic finite element model was used to
demonstrate the model.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Residual stress; Residual stress relaxation; Surface treatment; Cold work; Fatigue of metals

1. Introduction cyclic residual stress relaxation many years ago, Fig. 1.

Despite partial relaxation of the compressive residual
Fatigue cracking normally initiates at the surface, and stress, they still found a beneficial effect on fatigue life.
can be mitigated by inducing surface compressive Their fatigue lives were underpredicted if residual stress
residual stresses. The extent of mitigation depends relaxation wasn’t taken into consideration. In practice,
strongly upon the residual stress magnitude and distri- however, the difficulties in measuring residual stress
bution. Any cyclic residual stress relaxation during relaxation during component operation normally impede
component operation reduces the achievable benefits. the consideration of tracking this relaxation and
Assessment of the effect of residual stresses and their assessing its effect on remaining fatigue life. Morrow
relaxation on fatigue crack initiation and propagation and Sinclair [4] carried out some of the first research on
then becomes an important aspect of component design
and life management.
Residual stresses are those stresses existing along a
cross-section of a component without applied external
forces [1]. In surface treated components, the residual
stresses are self-equilibrating and the profiles of the
residual stress fields are dominantly dependent on the
material and treatment method. Despite considerable
research [2], there remains the technical challenge of
understanding and accurately quantifying residual stress
relaxation and redistribution under cyclic mechanical
and thermal load. Mattson and Coleman [3] observed

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-3-9626-7325; fax: +61-3-9626-

7083.
E-mail addresses: wyman.zhuang@dsto.defence.gov.au (W.Z. Fig. 1. Residual stress relaxation before and after cyclic loading
Zhuang), gary.r.halford@grc.nasa.gov (G.R. Halford). (Mattson and Coleman [3]).

0142-1123/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 4 2 - 1 1 2 3 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 3 2 - 3
S32 W.Z. Zhuang, G.R. Halford / International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37
prediction of residual stress relaxation based on mean
stress relaxation observed in axial fatigue test. Following
the same idea, Jhansale and Topper [5] proposed a logar-
ithm linear relationship between mean stress relaxation
against axial strain-controlled cycles. Both models
ignored the stress ratio effect with respect to residual
stress relaxation because the mean stresses in the axial
tests were dictated by the initially applied mean strain
which was held constant. Furthermore, neither model
had to contend with self-equilibrating residual stress
fields. In engineering, the residual stress fields are sub-
ject to a different stress ratio depending upon the
location in the component. This is not the case in uniax-
ial mean stress testing. During component operation, the
beneficial compressive residual stresses at the surface of
the components are often imposed to a cyclic loading
with positive mean stress. In this case, it has been found
that the rate of residual stress relaxation can be drastic
in the early stages of fatigue cycling. In extreme cases
[6], residual stress can be relaxed entirely in the first few
load cycles.
To clarify the mechanism of residual stress relaxation,
Kodama [7] measured residual stress decrease on the
surface of shot-peened specimens using X-ray diffrac-
tion techniques. The experimental data support the linear
logarithmic decrease relationship between residual stress
and load cycles only after the first cycle. Obviously, the
relationship is not applicable to drastic initial residual
stress reductions in the first few load cycles. From his
test data (Fig. 2) it is important to note that the com-
pressive residual stress in the first load cycle can be
relaxed by more than 50%. It would not be rational to
use a model that did not predict this significant relaxation
in the first load cycle. Also in the model, the stress ratio
effect was not exploded. This relationship was further
followed up by Holzapfel et al. [8] to interpolate residual
stress relaxation under thermal fatigue loading wherein
Fig. 2. Residual stress relaxation at the surface of a specimen
(Kodama [7]).
both cyclic and thermally activated stress relaxation
can occur.
The objectives of this study are to investigate the
mechanism of residual stress relaxation and to develop
an analytical model for its estimation under various
applied loading parameters. The analytical stress–strain
model uses the Bauschinger effect to account for initial
cold work effects on residual stress relaxation. A finite
element analysis (FEA) mesh with many very thin sur-
face layers, each specified with different degrees of cold
work, was developed to aid in the simulation of residual
stress relaxation. The residual stress fields simulated
were generated by shot peening (SP), laser shock peen-
ing (LSP) and low plasticity burnishing (LPB). The pro-
posed analytical model is validated against the numerical
FEA results. The results indicate that the analytical
model is able to estimate residual stress relaxation for
various applied loading parameters as well as for various
surface treatments.
2. Surface treatment and residual stress fields
Several surface processing treatments are available for
inducing residual stresses. Shot peening is by far the
most common and the least costly treatment process.
New processes such as laser shock peening and low plas-
ticity burnishing are being developed due to their prom-
ising technical advantages. Typical residual stress and
cold work distributions are shown in Fig. 3 for these
three. Both distributions were measured by an automatic
X-ray diffraction technique (Prevey et al. [9]). The tech-
nique measures the residual stresses from the determi-
nation of the shift in the X-ray diffraction peak position,
caused by the change of material lattice spacing due to
the presence of residual elastic strain (stress). Simul-
taneously, the technique can measure the broadening of
X-ray diffraction peaks to quantify the degree of cold
work in the material. Based on this philosophy, residual
stress and cold work distributions as functions of depth
can be measured after surface layers are removed by
electropolishing and by an associated correction tech-
nique. Each surface treatment process is briefly
described below.
2.1. Shot peening
Shot Peening is a multiply repeated surface impact
process. Hard spherical shots are air blasted against the
critical surface region of a component [10]. The inden-
tation at each point of impact is the result of local plastic
deformation on the surface. Since the plastically
stretched surface layer wants to expand and the adjacent
elastically responding material immediately around and
below the impact restrains the expansion, a compressive
residual stress field is generated in the near surface lay-
 W.Z. Zhuang, G.R. Halford / International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37
Fig. 3. Residual stress and cold work distributions in IN 718 after
surface treatment. Greatest and deepest residual stresses and least sur-
face cold working obtained with LSP and LPB.
ers. High compressive residual stresses are confined to
a shallow surface layer while low tensile residual stress
spreads deeper through the cross-section, Fig. 3(a).
Unfortunately, the degree of cold work (c.w.) can be
exceptionally high (up to 30–40%) at the surface, Fig.
3(b).
2.2. Laser shock peening
Laser Shock Peening uses a high energy pulsed laser
to vaporize a thin opaque coating on the surface to be
treated. This generates a powerful shock wave that
impacts and propagates into the components so that a
relatively deep surface layer of the component is
deformed plastically, Clauer [11]. Costs are currently
high, although efforts are being made to reduce these.
The residual stress and cold work distributions induced
by laser shock peening are shown in Fig. 3. The depth
S33
is significantly greater than for shot peening for the same
peak compressive residual stresses. As will be discussed
later, the degree of cold working is beneficially less
(⬇9% or less).
2.3. Low plasticity burnishing
Low Plasticity Burnishing is a low-to-moderate cost
process, developed for aircraft engine components, Pre-
vey et al. [9]. The LPB uses a hydraulically floated ball
to press and roll freely along the surface of the compo-
nent so that near surface layers are deformed plastically.
A series of overlapping passes are applied until the
intended surface area has been treated. Great depths of
residual compressive stress can be generated as shown
in Fig. 3(a). Because the rolling ball minimizes plasticity
(no shearing due to sliding), less cold work (⬇4%) is
generated at the surface, Fig. 3(b). Deep compressive
residual stresses decrease fatigue crack growth rates, in
addition to prolonging initiation life, and hence further
increase the life of treated components, Telesman et
al. [12].
As can be seen from Fig. 3, both LPB and LSP are
able to generate deeper and higher magnitude compress-
ive residual stress fields with much less cold work, com-
pared with SP. Most importantly, for high temperature
aircraft engine components, surfaces treated by LPB and
LSP will have higher thermal relaxation resistance (due
to lower cold work and lower propensity for annealing
or recrystallization) than those treated by SP. Significant
improvements in high cycle fatigue life over conven-
tional shot peening have been reported for these
advanced treatment methods (Prevey et al. [9] and
Clauer [11]).
3. Mechanism of residual stress relaxation due to
cyclic loading
Residual stresses at the surface of a component under
service loading will undergo varying degrees of relax-
ation and hence redistribution. The relaxation due to cyc-
lic loading is affected mainly by: (1) initial magnitude
and gradient of the residual stress field and degree of
cold working, (2) fatigue stress amplitude, mean stress
ratio and number of cycles, and (3) material cyclic
stress–strain response and degree of cyclic work
hardening/softening.
In the previous section, it was indicated that various
degrees of cold work in the surface of components were
introduced by using different surface treatment methods.
Lowest cold work (4–9%) was found in the surface
treated by LPB and LSP while SP generated highest cold
work (up to 30–40%) for the material IN718. As pub-
lished in the Aerospace Structural Metals Handbook
[13], a significant effect of cold work on material yield
S34 W.Z. Zhuang, G.R. Halford / International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37
Fig. 4. Effect of cold drawing on yield strength of IN718 bar at
room temperature.
strength is observed and is shown in Fig. 4. Normally,
the cold work produced by surface treatment is highest
in the surface and decreases through the thickness of the
material. Therefore, there are local yield strength gradi-
ents in the components after surface treatment. Figure 5
is a schematic representation of tensile (stretching) cold
working effect on the yield strength. While more tensile
cold working increases the tensile yield strength, the
local initial compressive yield strength after tensile cold
working is actually reduced. The greater the tensile cold
working, the lower the compressive yield strength. This
phenomenon is known as the Bauschinger effect.
Because the compressive yield strength is lowered, there
is a greater propensity to cyclically relax the initial com-
pressive residual stress. As shown schematically for the
two tensile cold working conditions (Low-A and High-
Fig. 5. High/low cold work effect on residual stress relaxation.
B) in Fig. 5, a larger amount of tensile cold work will
cause more and faster cyclic relaxation than less cold
working. This is for the same initial compressive
residual stress and the same fatigue loading conditions.
4. Relaxation equations and parameters
To quantify cyclic residual stress relaxation, several
empirical equations have been proposed based on experi-
mental results. Morrow and Sinclair [4] conducted
strain-controlled fatigue tests and obtained mean stress
relaxation data. A relationship between mean stress and
load cycle was proposed as following
smN sy−sa sa
⫽
sm1 sm1
⫺
sy 冉冊 b
log N (1)
where smN is the mean stress at the Nth cycle, sm1 is
the mean stress at the first cycle. sa is the alternating
stress amplitude, sy is the material yield strength, b is a
constant dependent on material softening and applied
strain range ⌬e. As Morrow and Sinclair mentioned in
their 1958 paper, Eq. (1) is not applicable for stress ratio
R⬅⫺1 because surface residual stress is only analogous
to mean stress when the material is subjected to com-
pletely reversed loading. Experimental results only sup-
port Eq. (1) for N⬎106 and smN⬍20. Following Mor-
row’s work, it has been normally accepted that residual
stress effects on fatigue can be assessed by the relaxation
of mean stresses (Landgraf and Chernenkoff [14]). Simi-
larly, Jhansale and Topper [5] suggested the following
smN⫽sm1(N)B (2)
where B is the relaxation exponent dependent on
material softening and applied strain range ⌬e.
Unlike using mean stress relaxation to simulate
residual stress relaxation, Kodama [7] measured residual
stress decrease on the surface of shot-peened specimens
using X-ray diffraction techniques, and proposed the fol-
lowing linear logarithm relationship
N ⫽A⫹m log N
sre (3)
where sreN is the surface residual stress after N cycles. A
and m are material constants depending on the stress
amplitude sa. It was noted that the experimental data
support the linear logarithm decrease relationship
between residual stress and load cycles only after the
first cycle.
5. Physics-based residual stress relaxation model
The models, Eqs (1)–(3), for the prediction of residual
stress relaxation were mainly developed to
interpolate/extrapolate experimental mean stress relax-
 W.Z. Zhuang, G.R. Halford / International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37 S35

ation data. Better understanding of the mechanism of
cyclic-dependent residual stress relaxation is needed to
develop a physics-based relaxation model. Such a model
incorporates the initial cold work effect as shown in Fig.
4. The proposed model must also take into account a
local reversed flow strength function as depicted in Fig.
5. Here, the compressive flow strength for a given plastic
off-set decreases with the increase of the tensile cold
working. This also implies that at a given stress in com-
pression, the slope of the stress–strain curve decreases
with the amount of tensile cold work. Because of the
decreased slope, there is a greater propensity for further
plasticity under relatively low cyclic loading, and hence,
faster cyclic stress relaxation from the initial residual
stress. This phenomenon can be expressed as
stress changes occur at the surface but also because of
the cold work gradient.
The second important ingredient in the development
of a numerical model is an accurate material stress–strain
response under cyclic loading. The material in this study
is wrought IN718 rectangular bar. The elastic constants
and the cyclic stress–strain response are shown in Fig.
6 (Rao et al. [15]). A nonlinear isotropic/kinematic-hard-
ening model was employed in the finite element model,
which is a simple rectangular bar consisting of 3-D brick
elements. The nonlinear kinematic hardening component
is able to simulate the translation of the yield strength
surface in stress space through the backstress while the
isotropic hardening component is used to describe the
change of the equivalent stress defining the size of the

冉 冊 m
elastic range. The yield surface function for a pressure-
1 independent material is thus written as
N⬀
sre (4)
Cwsy
F⫽f(s⫺a)⫺s0⫽0 (7)
where Cw is a parameter which accounts for the degree
of cold working. Material constant m depends on cyclic where f=(s⫺a) is the equivalent von Mises stress with
stress and strain response. From previous experiments respect to the backstress a and s0 is the yield strength.
[4–7], the relaxation rate of residual stress is pro- For a linear kinematic hardening material, s0=sy, i.e., a
portional to the applied stress amplitude and the number constant elastic strain range with zero plastic strain. Fig.
of stress cycles. Based on the above cold work relaxation 6 shows the 1st and 100th cyclic stress–strain responses
concept and concepts of residual stress relaxation simulated by the finite element model (solid symbols).
resulting from cyclic load amplitude (sa) and maximum The material elastic modulus E is 216 Gpa and the Pois-
load (smax), an equation for the prediction of residual son’s ratio n is 0.3.
stress relaxation is proposed.
sre
N
re
|s0 | 冉
⫽A
smaxsa
(Cwsy)2 冊
m
(N⫺1)B⫺1 (5)
6. Results and discussions

The modeling demonstration was conducted against

where material constant A is also dependent on cyclic
stress and strain response. Constant B controls the relax-
ation rate versus loading cycles. The initial residual
stress is sre
0 . To obtain the effect of loading ratio R on
the relaxation, Eq. (5) can be rewritten in the follow-
ing form.
sre
N
three dominant relaxation parameters, load amplitude,
load ratio and degree of initial cold work. Fig. 7 shows
the effect of load amplitude on residual stress relaxation.
It shows that the proposed relaxation model, Eqs (5)–
(6) predicts residual stress relaxation in good agreement
with that calculated by the finite element method.

|sre
0|
⫽A冉 2s2a
(1−R)(Cwsy)2 冊m
(N⫺1)B⫺1 (6)
With three different degrees of cold work in surfaces

The relaxation model, Eqs (5)–(6) reveals that indepen-

dently increasing R from ⫺1 to 0.5 increases the rate of
residual stress relaxation. Also it is clear that reducing
the load amplitude will cause the relaxation to slow
down. Prior to loading (N⬅1 in Eqs (5)–(6)) the residual
stress is equal to the initial value.
To demonstrate this analytical model, an FEA model
was generated based on two important ingredients. First,
residual stress relaxation should be dependent on the
degree of cold working in the surface such as shown in
Fig. 5. Thus, for each layer in the finite element model,
a different local material yield strength function has to
be specified to represent cold work gradients as shown
in the curves of Fig. 3(b). Fine grid element layers have
to be used at the surface not only because sharp residual Fig. 6. Cyclic stress/strain responses obtained by FE model and test.
S36 W.Z. Zhuang, G.R. Halford / International Journal of Fatigue 23 (2001) S31–S37
Fig. 7. Effect of load amplitude on residual stress relaxation.
representative of SP, LSP and LPB, the proposed model
was used to predict the residual stress relaxation. Fig. 8
clearly shows the effect on the relaxation of cold work
induced by the three surface treatments. Compared with
the numerical simulation, the model is able to account
for the cold work effects. The prediction is almost ident-
ical to the numerical in the early loading stage.
The proposed model was also tested against the load
ratio effect. Fig. 9 presents the relaxation behavior
obtained by the analytical model and by the finite
element method. It has been found that the model can
predict the relaxation with R=0 and ⫺1 very close to
that obtained by the finite element method.
7. Conclusions
A physics-based relaxation model was proposed based
on the Bauschinger effect and a realistic back-stress
based plasticity stress–strain relation. The model was
verified using an advanced finite element model. The
analytical model was used to predict the residual stress
relaxation versus various cyclic loading conditions for
Fig. 8. Effect of method of cold working on residual stress relaxation.
Fig. 9. Effect of load ratio on residual stress relaxation.
different degree of surface cold working induced by SP,
LSP and LPB technologies.
Comparison with the numerical simulation indicates
that the analytical model is robust particularly during the
early cyclic loading stage of low cycle fatigue. This fea-
ture and capability of the model are critical because
major residual stress relaxation takes place during the
early stage as observed in previous studies.
Although the analytical model proposed here is able
to predict the trends of residual stress relaxation an
experimental study on cycle-dependent residual stress
relaxation is required to benchmark the analytical and
numerical models.
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