Numerical Simulation of Particle Transport from Dispenser to Target in Micro-Shot Peening Applications

Three dimensional numerical simulations of micro shot peening process are carried out for different operating and nozzle surface conditions. The influence of two different turbulence model variants namely the SKE model and AKN model are employed to investigate their capability to accurately predict the shot peening process. Nozzle surface is assumed to be both smooth and rough and their influence on the solid discrete particle dynamics is investigated. Particle velocity and splat sizes resulting from the shot peening process are numerically simulated and compared against the measurements. It is inferred from simulations that the AKN turbulence model predicts the surface deposition characteristics both qualitatively and quantitatively closer to the measurements than that of the SKE model. Nozzle surface roughness is found to influence the particle velocity, particle rebounding angles and therefore resulting in wider particle dispersion leading to larger particle splats on the target substrate.