Numerical-experimental Method for the Analysis of Residual Stresses in Cold-expanded Holes

Hole cold expansion is a technique widely used to improve the fatigue life of components with holes, e.g. bolted or riveted joints. As it has been demonstrated in literature by analytical, numerical and experimental analyses carried out by several authors, the compressive residual stresses introduced by the hole cold expansion have a beneficial influence on both the static and the fatigue strength of the treated component, because they reduce significantly the typical stress peaks around the hole due to stress concentration. In the literature, various analyses of the residual stresses introduced by the hole cold expansion have been performed by using several methods such as X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction and the modified Sachs method. Unfortunately, all these method are affected by some limitations: low measurement depth (X-ray method), complex measurement procedure (neutron diffraction method) and approximate formulation (Sachs method). In order to overcome such drawbacks, in this study a new mechanical method, based on an innovative extension of the “rectilinear groove method” associated with the classical “integral method” calculation procedure, is proposed. Experimental assessment of the proposed method has been performed by using aluminum 5083 H321 specimens with holes subjected to various levels of cold expansion.