Exploring the Effects of Prolonged Vibratory Polishing on Shot Peened Ti-64

Shot peening is a common surface treatment technique used to improve the fatigue life of aerospace materials such as Titanium-64. However, shot peening increases the surface roughness of the part and hence, an additional vibratory polishing process is usually employed as a post-treatment step to reduce the surface roughness. Unfortunately, vibratory polishing is a material removal process, and its effect on the residual stress and cold work in the part is not well understood. In this paper, we explore the impact of prolonged vibratory polishing on shot peened coupons. The study focuses on the residual stress, cold work, and microstructure of the test coupons.