Evaluation of equibiaxial compressive stress introducedinto austenitic stainless steel using an eddy current method

Equibiaxial compressive residual stress is introduced into steel after peening in order to improve both its resistance to stress corrosion cracking and its fatigue strength. Thus, a nondestructive and relatively quick method to evaluate the equibiaxial compressive residual stress in a surface layer modified by peening is required in order to evaluate the peening intensity needed to enhance the integrity of structural components. The purpose of the work reported here is to establish an eddy current method to evaluate equibiaxial compressive stress which can be applied to the residual stress introduced into various non-ferromagnetic materials after peening. To this end, hydraulic jacks were used to elastically deform specimens of the austenitic stainless steel, Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) SUS316L, thereby introducing an equibiaxial compressive stress. In the case of SUS316L steel, stress-induced martensitic transformation is rare. The electromagnetic properties of these specimens were then measured. In addition, the eddy current signals from peened specimens were compared with these. The results demonstrate that it is possible to establish a method for evaluating the equibiaxial stress utilizing eddy current signals.