The investigation of internal friction and elastic modulus in surface nanostructured materials

In this paper, 304 stainless steel and pure Fe specimens, which were processed by high-energy shot peening (HESP) and ultrasonic shot peening (USP) respectively, were studied by the internal friction method. Measurements were carried out on a vibrating reed apparatus. The change of internal friction and elastic modulus shows that the treatment duration of specimen is not accompanied by the corresponding persistent increase of internal friction and elastic modulus. There is a transition layer from the top surface to the inside of the materials. Young’s modulus of surface shows obviously a fluctuation along the depth profile. The phenomena have never been shown by other measurement methods. The microstructure change should be related to some basic mechanism of surface layer formation. It may also explain why the improvement of mechanical properties in surface nanocrystallized materials does not simply correspond to the duration time of severe deformation.