Shot peen forming pattern optimization to achieve cylindrical and saddle target shapes: The inverse problem

Abstract

The inverse problem of determining how to shot peen a plate such that it deforms into the desired target shape is a challenge in the peen forming industry. While peening thick plates uniformly on one side results in a spherical shape, with the same curvature in all directions, complex peening patterns are required to form other shapes, such as cylinders and saddles found on fuselages and wing skin panels. In this study, we present an optimization procedure to automatically compute shot peening patterns. This procedure relies on an idealized model of the peen forming process, where the effect of the treatment is modeled by in-plane expansion of the peened areas, and on an off-the-shelf optimization algorithm. For validation purposes, we peen formed three 305 × 305 × 4.9 mm and two 762 × 762 × 4.9 mm 2024–T3 aluminium alloy plates into cylindrical and saddle shapes using the same peening treatment. The obtained shapes qualitatively match simulations. For 305 × 305 × 4.9 mm plates, the relative differences had the same distribution and were of the same order of magnitude as initial out-of-plane deviations measured on the as-received plates.