International

Journalof
International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 192–196
Fatigue
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Technical note

The effectiveness evaluation of 314L stainless steel vibratory stress

relief by dynamic stress
a,*
D. Rao , D. Wang a, L. Chen b, C. Ni b

a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Huashan road 1954, Shanghai 200030, China
b
Department of Materials Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

Received 30 May 2005; received in revised form 22 December 2005; accepted 23 February 2006
Available online 17 April 2006

Abstract

Vibratory stress relief (VSR) is a procedure to reduce the residual stress by means of vibrating dynamic stress. Currently, real-time and
quantitative evaluating the effectiveness of VSR is an important problem. Cyclic loading, or dynamic stress, imposed on the welded struc-
ture during VSR affect the reduction of residual stresses directly. This paper examines the cyclic stress and strain of type 304L stainless
steel welded specimens and presents the cyclic creep mechanism during VSR of 304L. According to the experiments, a mathematic model
of residual stress relaxation proposed which conducted against dynamic stress. The model is applied to evaluate the effectiveness of VSR
during manufacturing HT-7U Tokamak welded structure. The difference of residual stress decrease between the calculated and measured
is about 11%. The result shows that the effectiveness evaluation of VSR using dynamic stress is practical.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vibratory stress relief; Residual stress; Cyclic loading; Dynamic stress; Welding structure

1. Introduction VSR [2], for example, the shift of resonance frequency

Vibratory stress relief (VSR) is a general term used to
refer to residual stress reduction by means of vibrating
dynamic stress. Although VSR has been extensively used
for more than 40 years, the mechanism of VSR is still under
investigation, and quantitative evaluating the effectiveness
of VSR is an important problem. Generally, the vibrator
of VSR processing is an eccentric mass electric motor
attaching to the structure requiring stress relief. The
dynamic stresses combine with residual stresses may exceed
the yield strength of the material, and induce local plastic
deformation and relaxation of residual stresses [1].
The reduction of residual stress affects the natural
damping characteristics of the vibrating mass. The effec-
tiveness of VSR is often evaluated according to the com-
parison of vibration response curves before and after
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 6293 3981; fax: +86 21 6293 2270.
E-mail address: raode@sjtu.edu.cn (D. Rao).
[3]. But this effectiveness evaluation method, though
quickly gotten after VSR, is qualitative.
Quantitative evaluation results can get by measuring the
residual stress of the same point before and after VSR pro-
cess. Drill-hole and XRD are two methods to measure the
residual stress of welding structures. Both are complex and
time consuming. As twice measurement (before and after
VSR) needed, the effectiveness evaluation methods are
not often used.
A simple and quantitative method to evaluate the reduc-
tion of residual stress is needed during VSR of welding
structures. The residual stresses are internal stresses and
self-equilibrium in the absence of external loads. During
VSR of welded structure, cyclic stress, or dynamic stress,
imposed on the structure affects the reduction of residual
stresses directly. The local residual stress is a mean stress
on which cyclic stress is superimposed. The dynamic stress
amplitude can be measured easily using strain gauge during
VSR. This paper presents the quantitative relationship
between the dynamic stress amplitude and the reduction

0142-1123/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2006.02.047
 D. Rao et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 192–196
of residual stresses. The main purpose of this research is to
establish a model for 304L stainless steel welding residual
stress relaxation under cyclic loading, and therefore, find
a quantitative and easy way to evaluate the effectiveness
of VSR. The proposed model is applied in the VSR of
HT-7U Tokamak welding structure.
2. Cyclic stress and strain of stainless steel
Electro-hydraulic servo system fatigue testing machine
(MTS810) is used to induce vibrating cyclic loading which
can simulate the dynamic stress during VSR. The speci-
mens are made from stainless steel plate of cross-section
8 · 30 mm. The total length of the specimen is 150 mm
which includes the clamping area. The tests are carried
out under the load-controlled condition.
The material specification of the plate is type 304L stain-
less steel, with composition (wt%) Fe-0.02C-1.38Mn-
0.47Si-0.03P-0.005S-18.2Cr-8.7Ni-0.05N. The specimens
were heated with welding torch to induce residual stresses
Fig. 1. Strain sensor on the specimen.
10
10th cyc
8 20th cyc
50th cyc
6 110th cyc
200th cyc
4 300th cyc
2
force (KN)
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
-0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
a strain (%)
Fig. 2. The cyclic loading and strain of 304L welded specimen (stress amplitude = 50 MPa).
193
before loading. The single pass weld bead is in the middle
of the specimen and about 100 mm long. The strain sensor
was mounted on the weld bead of the specimen (see Fig. 1).
The tension-compression dynamic stress (R = 1) was
applied to simulate VSR processing. Cyclic strain of the
weld bead was measured during cyclic loading. Fig. 2(a)
shows the cyclic force and local strain on weld bead at dif-
ferent number of cycle.
The controlled loading has a constant amplitude from
cycle to cycle, thus, the dynamic stress amplitude is con-
stant (±50 MPa in Fig. 2). The local strain amplitude is
not constant, and the mean strain gradually increase in
the tensile direction which shows the feature of cyclic plas-
tic strain, or cyclic creep. Fig. 2(b) shows the cyclic strain at
different loading cycle. Each line in Fig. 2(b) represents a
loading cycle. The cyclic creep is high during first 50 cycles,
but its rate is decelerating. The cyclic strain gradually
becomes stable after 200 cycles, and difference between
the 200th cycle and the 300th cycle is slight.
Fig. 3 shows the cyclic strain of another welded speci-
men at different loading cycle, while the loading stress
amplitude is ±100 MPa. Fig. 3 also shows the cyclic creep
and the rate is decelerating, but the creep stabilization
needs more cycles comparing with that under ±50 MPa
cyclic stress. The cyclic creep still increases from the
200th cycle to the 300th cycle, and further study shows that
creep stabilization occurs after 600 cycles. The results indi-
cate that high dynamic stress amplitude will create large
cyclic creep and more cycles need to reach the creep
stabilization.
The yield stress of 304L is about 320 MPa, and the
dynamic stress during VSR is in the elastic region. The
above testing results indicate that cyclic creep is intimately
related to the cyclic dynamic stress and the local residual
stress on weld. Usually, longitudinal residual stress (along
the weld bead direction) on the weld bead is tensile stress
which can reach the yield stress of the material [4]. The
essential facts from the fatigue point of view are that weld-
ing structure have some residual stress in them and the
0.08
0.06
0.04
Strain (%)
0.02
0.00
-0.02 dynamic stress amp.=50 MPa
dynamic stress Amp.=50 MPa loading freq.=10 Hz
loading freq.=10 Hz
-0.04
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
b Number of cycle (n ×10)
194 D. Rao et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 192–196

20 The studies of the above authors show that the relaxa-

10th cyc tion of residual stress due to cyclic loading is affected
15 50th cyc
100th cyc mainly by: (1) initial magnitude and gradient of the resid-
200th cyc ual stress, (2) dynamic stress amplitude, (3) number of
10 300th cyc
cycle, and (4) material properties under cyclic loading.
5
force (KN)

0
4. Welding residual stress relaxation under cyclic loading

-5 As mentioned in the previous section, residual stresses

-10
-15
-20
-0.06 -0.04 -0.02 0.00 0.02 0.04
strain (%)
Fig. 3. Cyclic force and strain of 304L welded sample (stress
amplitude = 100 MPa).
residual stress can be regarded as local mean stress during
tension-compression cyclic loading. The reason for cyclic
creep is that in each cycle the mean stress (tensile stress)
raises the peak stress in one direction only. Thus, in each
cycle there is some plastic flow that is not opposed by an
equal amount of flow in the other direction [5]. Although
the dynamic stress is in the elastic region, the cyclic plastic
strain is high because of Bauschinger effect. In this case,
small dynamic stress can produce substantial preferential
plastic flow in each cycle, and cyclic creep occurs. The
above experiments show the cyclic creep mechanism during
VSR of stainless steel welding structure.
3. Cyclic loading and residual stress relaxation
The relaxation of residual stress during cyclic loading
has attracted the attention of many researchers. Morrow
and Sinclair [6] carried out some of the early research
on prediction of residual stress relaxation based on mean
stress relaxation observed in axial fatigue test. They pro-
posed a model base on the mean stress at the first cycle,
the number of cycle, the material yield strength and
dynamic stress amplitude. Kodama [7] measured the
residual stress decrease of mild steel and pointed out that
residual stress relaxation varied linearly with the loga-
rithm of the fatigue cycles and the rate was proportional
local to the weld are typically of yield stress magnitude.
The yield stress of the material can be regarded as initial
dynamic stress Amp.=100 MPa
stress. Therefore, the welding residual stress relaxation of
loading freq.=10 Hz 304L stainless steel under cyclic loading is mainly affected
by dynamic stress amplitude and number of cycle. Selected
0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
the middle points of every lines in Fig. 2(b), the cyclic creep
curve of the weld under ±50 MPa dynamic stress can be
drawn as dots in Fig. 4.
According to the creep strain curve above, a fitted equa-
tion for the cyclic creep is proposed. See solid line in Fig. 4.
er ¼ P 1  50  ð1  expðN  P 2=50ÞÞ ð1Þ
Where er is the total cyclic creep after N cycles, N is the
number of cycle, P1 and P2 are fitted coefficient constants
which dependent on material initial residual stress and cyc-
lic stress–strain response, 50 indicate the dynamic stress
amplitude is 50 MPa. To estimate the relaxation of residual
stress, the decrease of the residual stress can be written in
the following form.
Dr ¼ E  er ð2Þ
Where E is the dynamic modulus. The dynamic modulus
E has something to do with the loading which can be cal-
culated according to Fig. 2(a). Based on above fitted re-
sults and the concept of welding residual stress, the
residual stress decrease of 304L under cyclic load can be
written as
Dr ¼ 1:05  105  K  E  rd  ð1  expð1:13642  N =rd ÞÞ
ð3Þ
0.06
0.05
creep strain
0.04 fit of creep strain
creep strain (%)

to the stress amplitude. Smith et al. [8] used an elastic–

plastic finite element model to analyze the interaction 0.03
between residual stress and dynamic loading. They found
that the residual stress relaxation takes place even for low 0.02
Data: Data1_B
cyclic strain range. Zhuang and Halford [9] proposed a Model: 041216a

finite element model to estimate the residual stress relaxa- 0.01 Chi^2
R^2
= 3.6995E-6
= 0.98103

tion. The parameters considered by the model include the P1 0.00105 ±0.00001
P2 1.13642 ±0.04502
magnitude and distribution of residual stress, the degree 0.00
of cold working, the dynamic stress and mean stress,
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
and the number of loading cycles. Their results indicate
Numer of cycle (N)
that major residual stress relaxation takes place during
the early stage. Fig. 4. Cyclic creep of 304L welded sample at different number of cycle.
 D. Rao et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 192–196 195

Where rd is dynamic stress amplitude, K is stress ratio be- Table 1

tween initial residual stress and yield stress of material. As The residual stress measurement results and calculated results
to the weld bead, K can be regarded as 1. Dynamic Longitudinal Measured Calculated Error
stress stress Dr (MPa) Dr (MPa) (%)
amplitude (MPa)
5. Evaluation of residual stress relaxation by dynamic stress (MPa)
±30 239 56 58 3
Eq. (3) gives a model which can be used to quantitative ±60 161 134 117 13
evaluate the effectiveness of VSR. Fig. 5 shows the decrease ±90 98 197 176 11
of residual stress under different dynamic stress amplitude
based in Eq. (3).
The residual stresses of 304L welded specimens are mea- ±60 MPa, and ±90 MPa are selected during cyclic loading
sured using the X-ray diffraction method (XRD). The size of the three specimens, respectively.
and material of the specimens are the same as that in pre- Table 1 shows the measurement results of residual stres-
vious section. Fig. 6 shows three specimens that are cyclic ses after 600 cycles loading and the decreases of the stres-
loaded. The measuring points of residual stress are on the ses. The calculated decrease of residual stresses based in
fusion lines of the welds (Fig. 6). The initial (as-welded) Eq. (3) also show in the table.
longitudinal residual stress measured using XRD is about Table 1 indicates that the errors of residual stress are less
295 MPa. Three dynamic stress amplitudes, ±30 MPa, than 15% between the measurement and calculation results.
Further studies were carried out during the VSR of HT-7U
Tokamak welding structure.
200
6. Evaluation of VSR by dynamic stress
σd=90 MPa

160 Fig. 7 shows the base plate of HT-7U Tokamak. The

base plate material is type 304L stainless steel. The plate
σd=60 MPa was formed of five stripes 304L sheet by welding process-
Δσ (MPa)

120
ing. The diameter of the base plate is 7.6 m, the thickness
is 70 mm, and total weight is over 34 tonnes. The plate
80 was VSR processed after welding. Rubber supports were
σd=30 MPa put uniformly under the circle of the plate, and the exciter
was fixed at edge of the middle hole during VSR. The plate
40
was processed at resonant frequency of 47.83 Hz and
60.68 Hz.The total time of VSR is about 15 min.
0 For welding structures with large thickness, both XRD
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 and drill-hole methods can be used to measure the surface
Number of cycle (N) stresses. The measurement depth of XRD is several
Fig. 5. The welding residual stresses decrease of 304L vs. number of micrometers, while the depth of drill-hole is several milli-
loading cycle under different dynamic stress. meters (only 3 mm as to the blind hole of the paper). The

Fig. 6. Welded specimens and residual stress measuring points. Fig. 7. The base plate of HT-7U Tokamak structure.
196 D. Rao et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 192–196
weld
measuring points
Fig. 8. Position of residual stress measuring points.
Fig. 9. The dynamic strain waveform of one point.
residual stresses of the welded plate were measured before
and after VSR using drill-hole method. The position of the
measured point shows in Fig. 8. The average decrease of
longitudinal residual stress is about 39.5 MPa after VSR
processing.
The dynamic stresses of above six points were also mea-
sured using the strain gauge during VSR processing. Fig. 9
shows the dynamic strain (voltage signal) curve of one
point on the oscilloscope and the dynamic stress amplitude
of the point can be calculated. The average dynamic stress
amplitude of the six points is 18 MPa. According to Eq. (3)
the average decrease of residual stress is about 35 MPa.
The difference between the results of model calculated
and measured is about 11%.
The above results show that the residual stress decrease
evaluated using dynamic stress can agree well with that
measured. The experiment and the engineering project
results both indicate that the proposed model can be used
to evaluate the effectiveness of VSR. Once the average
dynamic stress amplitude on the weld is measured, the
quantitative result of residual stress decrease can be gotten
soon after VSR processing.
7. Conclusion
The effectiveness of VSR can be evaluated using
dynamic stress amplitude and number of cycle. The resid-
ual stress decrease model of 304L under cyclic loading is
established, and the estimated results of residual stress
using the model agree well with that measured. The model
is applied to evaluate the effectiveness of VSR during man-
ufacturing HT-7U Tokamak welded structure and the
residual stress decrease difference between the results of
model calculated and measured is about 11%.
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