Effect of Shot Peening Treatment on Residual Stress and Magnetic Barkhausen Noise of AISI 201LN and AISI 304L Stainless Steels

Abstract This work evaluates microstructural changes and residual stresses on surface samples of AISI 201LN and 304L subjected to shot peening. The residual stresses were measured by X‑ray diffraction and magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) in different shot-peened conditions. The results showed that the 201LN steel presented more martensite than the 304L steel in the initial condition, but with lower δ‑ferrite contents. These ferromagnetic phases were present in a low amount with high tensile residual stresses due to brush cleaning and light cold‑rolling in the final stage of the fabrication process. The shot peening process promoted compressive residual stresses mainly in the δ‑ferrite. However, some “fresh” martensite exhibited tensile residual stress represented by higher and thinner peaks, which together with the low-intensity amplitude in the neighborhood, represented all formed martensite. Thus, small microstructural changes provoked high residual stresses behavior, which can be detected in ferromagnetic phases by MBN.