Effect of shot peening coverage on fatigue limit in round bar of annealed medium carbon steel

Shot peening is an effective and economical technique for improving the fatigue strength of metallic components by inducing compressive residual stress and hardening the layer near the surface. The effect is generally evaluated by main two parameters: coverage and peening intensity. However, the valuable coverage for improving the fatigue strength depends on the shape of the target material. In this study, the effect of coverage on fatigue limit in round bar of annealed medium carbon steel was experimentally studied. The fatigue limits for shot peened round bar specimens with 140–2300% coverage increased 14–25% by comparing those for non-peened round bar specimens. The valuable range of coverage was 280–60% in the used material and shot peening condition for improving the fatigue limit in short time. The result indicates that the valuable coverage of the round bar material is higher than full coverage to improve the fatigue limit of the material due to the effect of incident angle on round bar, even though the degree depends on the materials and shot peening conditions.