Empirical modelling of water-jet peening of 6063-T6 aluminium alloy

In this article, peening studies carried out on 6063-T6 Al alloy with high pressure water are presented. These studies have been carried out employing a round nozzle by varying the process parameters, such as, water-jet pressure, stand off distance, number of passes and traverse speed at three levels using Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array experimentation. The influence of these process parameters on residual stress, hardness and surface roughness are investigated. Finally, an empirical model, based on the mean analysis that relates the results with process parameters, is presented.