Edge distance effects on residual stress distribution around a cold expanded hole in Al 2024 alloy

Cold expansion process is a well-known technique for improving the fatigue life of aerospace structures by introducing a compressive residual stress around the fastener holes. However, there are concerns about the residual stress distribution around those holes which are located near the free edges of structure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of edge distance ratio (e/D) on the residual stress distribution around a cold expanded hole in Al 2024 alloy. A two-dimensional finite element simulation was carried out with various degrees of cold expansion and various values of e/D. It was found that for edge distance ratios less than e/D = 3, there are considerable effects on the residual stress profile. Also, the dependency of residual stress distribution on the degree of expansion was reduced significantly for small e/Ds. The results revealed that the bulging of the plate free edge increases with reduction of e/D but in worse cases the maximum bulging at the plate free edge was lower than 3% of the hole radius. The weight function method was then used for determining stress intensity factors for a crack emanating from a cold expanded hole.