Numerical modelling and experimental approach for surface morphology evaluation during ultrasonic shot peening

[Display omitted] •Studied the surface morphology of peened AISI-1018 steel plates experimentally and numerically.•Revealed the effects of process parameters on the surface state of peened samples.•Established a 3-D FE simulation model for the surface state prediction after single impact.•Proposed and verified a numerical model for surface morphology evaluation during multiple impacts. Surface morphology of severely plastically deformed AISI-1018 steel plates, induced by ultrasonic shot peening process, was investigated by using finite element method and experiments. Experiments were conducted and the surface morphology of the peened samples was measured by non-contact 3D profilometry. Effect of the diameter of the shot and processing time on the surface morphology of the samples was investigated and discussed. In addition, a three dimensional FE simulation model was developed to simulate the deformation and plastic strain of the peened surface after single impact. And a numerical algorithm was proposed to predict the surface morphology of the sample after multiple impacts. The proposed algorithm was verified experimentally and the simulation results show a reasonable agreement with the experimental results.