Different strategies for finite element simulations of static mechanical surface treatment processes—a comparative analysis

Static mechanical surface treatment (MST) processes based on the severe plastic deformation of the surface and subsurface layers improve the surface integrity (SI) of a metal component dramatically and thus its operational properties. The finite element method (FEM) is a basic simulation method used in the numerical investigations of MST processes. Although FEM always requires experimental verification of the results so obtained and an experiment to establish an adequate material constitutive model, this method saves of the researcher significant time and resources. Based on an analysis of the published studies devoted to FE simulations of static MST processes, five basic conditions have been found to be essential in order to build an adequate FE model. The theoretical formulations are then illustrated by creating FE models of the slide diamond burnishing (SDB) process using different strategies to make a comparative analysis between them. SDB is a static MST process with a thermomechanical nature. The adequacy of each FE model, respectively, strategy, is then assessed by comparing the FE results for the residual stresses with the experimental results obtained via the X-ray diffraction technique. It has been shown that a fully coupled thermal-stress 3D FE analysis of an SDB process with nonlinear kinematic hardening should be carried out. When the burnishing velocity is relatively small, the thermal effect can be neglected.