Materials Science Forum Vols 471-472 (2004) pp 658-662 Online: 2004-12-15

© (2004) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.471-472.658
Materials Science Forum Vols. *** (2004) pp.658-662
online at http://scientific.net
 2004 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
Finite Element Analysis of Effects of Ball Burnishing Parameters on
Residual Stresses
W.J. Deng1,a, W. Xia1,b, Z.Y. Zhou1,c, W.P. Chen1,d and Y.Y. Li1,e
1
College of Mechanical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641,
China
a
dengwenjun@163.com, bmewxia@scut.edu.cn, czhouzhaoyao@hotmail.com,
d
mewpchen@scut.edu.cn, emehjli@scut.edu.cn.

Keywords: Burnishing, Residual stress, Finite element method

Abstract. A three-dimensional coupled thermal-mechanical model of ball burnishing process is

developed using commercial explicit finite element code MSC. Marc. The workpiece is modeled as
being elastic-plastic, while its flowstress is taken as a function of strain, strain-rate, and
temperature. Temperature-dependent material properties are also considered in this analysis. The
burnishing ball is considered as rigid and only heat transfer analysis is carried out for it. In the zone
of the workpiece and tool contact, the Coulomb friction is taken into account. Effects of ball
burnishing parameters (burnishing force, feed rate, speed, ball diameter and number of tool passes)
on residual stresses are analyzed. The results show that burnishing force, ball diameter, number of
passes and burnishing feed have the most significant effect on the residual stresses. However,
burnishing speed seems to just produce little effect on those. Larger burnishing force, larger number
of passes, smaller ball diameter and small feed rate seem to be more effective in increasing in the
maximum compressive residual stress and the depth of the layer at the compressive stress state.

Introduction
Burnishing removes no metal but rather compresses, or irons out, the peaks of a metal surface into
the valleys thereby generating a dense and uniform surface. Improvements in surface finish, surface
hardness, wear resistance, fatigue resistance, yield and tensile strength and corrosion resistance can
be achieved by the application of this process [1].
In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to burnishing operations for its recent
commercially successful applications in industry. Shalski et al [2] have given an analysis of the
burnishing process in which the workpiece material is treated as an elastic-plastic body with
strain-hardening while the tool is taken to be rigid. Black et al [3] proposed a slipline field model of
simplified burnishing process to derive equations for estimating the burnishing force, the depth of
burnished layer and the plastic strains. Röettger [4] developed a FEM based model to analyze the
hard roller burnishing process, with a few realistic assumptions and boundary conditions, the
predictions agreed well with the experimental data. Experimental studies on the effects of
burnishing parameters (burnishing force, feed rate, speed, ball diameter and number of tool passes)
on the burnished surface include those A.M. Hassan et al [1, 5-10], El-Axir et al [11, 12] and
Klocke et al [13]. Although many efforts have been made to study the burnishing process, from the
review of the published literature, the majority of the research existing in literature on the effect of
burnishing parameters on the burnished surface have been experimental or analytical, only few
finite element models are available though this approach is more cost-effective and time-saving.

Finite Element Model

Ideal Surface Roughness in Turning. All machined surfaces consist of a series of peaks and
valleys of irregular height and spacing. Assuming a zero cutter nose radius (Fig.1), the following
equation is used to estimate the ideal roughness value in turning:

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 Materials Science Forum Vols. 471-472 659
Materials Science Forum Vols. *** 659

f
RZ = （1）
ctgκ r + ctgκ r'

where: Rz= theoretical mean roughness depth; f = feed (mm/rev); κ r and κ r' are major cutting edge
angle (MCEA) and end cutting edge angle (ECEA), respectively.
Finite Element Mesh Model. The simulated operation is burnishing of an upper layer of
material from a cylindrical workpiece which rotates around its axis using a ball that moves on a
path perpendicular to this axis. Taking into account a short period of process time during which the
ball path is small and, since the burnishing ball is far from the rotational axis of the workpiece, the
burnishing operation can be modeled as shown in Fig.2 (a).
In order to perform the simulation using reasonable time and computing resource, only a small
portion of the workpiece is considered. The workpiece is modeled with 12 peaks and 11 valleys.
The geometry parameters of the workpiece are described as follows: length=1.2mm, width= 1.2mm,
height=0.5366mm and the ideal roughness RZ =0.0366mm ( κ r =45 ° , κ r' =30 ° and feed
rate=0.1mm/s). The workpiece consists of 63120 eight-noded, isoparametric, three-dimensional
brick elements with trilinear interpolation and 71065 nodes (Fig.2 (b)). Since the peaks at top
surface of the workpiece are expected to undergo large deformation, it is modeled with a finer
mesh, in order to predict the precise stress, strain, strain rate, and temperature field developed in the
peaks.
f
y
Tool path

κr κ r' Cut plane (W)

Burnishing ball
0.5366mm

z x

1.2mm 1.2mm
Machined surface o
Tool v
ω

(a) (b)

Fig.1 Ideal surface roughness in Fig.2 Finite element model of burnishing

turning operation

Referring to Fig.2 (a), the following velocity boundary conditions in five planes are applied:

z = 0, z = 1.2 : vz = 0; x = 0, x = 1.2 : vz = 0; y = 0 : vx = 0, v y = 0, vz = 0 . (2)

Other boundaries of the workpiece are considered as the free ones.

Material Model. The workpiece material used for the ball burnishing simulation was C45 steel.
In order to quantify the effect of plastic flow characteristics of the workpiece material on the
burnishing process, a thermo-elastic-plastic model with isotropic hardening and strain rate
dependence was considered in the analysis. In the linear elasticity regime, the total stress is defined
from the total elastic strain as:

σ = D el ε el (3)

where σ is the total elastic stress, D el is the elasticity matrix, and ε el is the total elastic strain.
660 Advances in Materials Manufacturing Science and Technology
660 Advances in Materials Manufacturing Science and Technology

D el is defined by giving Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio.

In the plastic regime, the flowstress equation for C45 steel used in this paper is given with a
constitutional model as follow:

σ = f (ε pl , ε& pl , T ) (4)

where ε pl ， ε& pl are effective plastic strain and effective plastic strain rate, respectively, T is the
temperature. Fig.3 shows the flowstress curves at different strain rate and temperature range. The
temperature-dependent physical properties of C45 steel are also considered in this study.
Steady state
1000 250

900
200

Burnishing force (N)

800
Flow stress (MPa)

150 Steady state Steady state Steady state

700

600 100

T=20℃, strain rate=1.6 T=100℃, strain rate=1.6

500 T=200℃, strain rate=1.6 T=300℃, strain rate=1.6 50
T=20℃, strain rate=8.0 T=100℃, strain rate=8.0
T=200℃, strain rate=8.0 T=300℃, strain rate=8.0
400
T=20℃, strain rate=40.0 T=100℃, strain rate=40.0
T=200℃, strain rate=40.0 T=300℃, strain rate=40.0 0
The first circle The second circle The third circle The fourth circle
300
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Plastic strain Increment

Fig.3 Variation of burnishing force with

Flowstress curves of C45 steel Fig.4
incremental step
Friction at the Contact Interface. In this case, the Coulomb friction is considered at the
workpiece and tool contact interface. The constant frictional coefficient of 10-2 is used.
Heat Transfer. The main sources of heating in burnishing processes are the plastic work and the
friction at the tool/workpiece interface. In this study, 90% of the plastic deformation and 100% of
the frictional work is assumed to be converted into heat. The heat losses to the environment from
the free surfaces of the workpiece, due to convection heat transfer, are taken into account.

Simulation Results and Discussions

Burnishing Force. Fig.4 shows the variation of the burnishing force with incremental step at initial
four circles (Burnishing Parameters: F=120N, v=1.26m/s, f=0.10mm/rev, n=1, d=10mm). In this
study, each simulate case consists of 3~8 simulation cycles. Each simulation cycle is divided into
150 simulation steps. It can be seen that the burnishing force in each simulation circle increases
sharply, reaches a steady value and then decreases to zero. It can be obviously observed that the
steady values varies from the maximum in the first simulate circle to a steady value at the
subsequent simulation circles, it mainly caused by the volume of the workpiece feed for burnishing
operation decreases from the maximum to a steady value with the given depth of penetration.
Hardness and Temperature. Simulation results show that the hardness values at the peaks and
valleys are very high for its severe deformation. And there is very little temperature rise in the
workpiece under the current burnishing condition.
Residual Stress. Residual stresses induced in the burnishing process are the uppermost object to
be investigated in this study. Finite element simulation results presented below are taken after the
burnishing process is completed and the workpiece is cooled down to the environment temperature.
A cut plane W defined in Fig.2 that represents typical steady-state solutions was taken out for the
following analyzing and discussing for convenience. Because of space limitations, only part of
results for normal stress in feed direction is given. The results for normal stress in burnishing
direction bear similar features.
Fig.5 shows the distributions of residual normal stress in feed direction at different burnishing
 Materials Science Forum Vols. 471-472 661
Materials Science Forum Vols. *** 661

force. A high compressive residual stress can be observed at the valleys. And the whole region of
workpiece shows the compressive residual stress generated. The law of the distribution of residual
stresses in the burnished layer versus the depth from the burnished surface can easily be
distinguished: Compressive residual stress is obtained at the burnished surface, and the level of the
compressive stress increases in the inner layer, then the level of the compressive stress decreases
slowly to a negligible level at large depths after the maximum is reached. It can be seen that an
increase in burnishing force produces a significant increase in both maximum compressive residual
stress and the depth of the layer at the compressive stress state. It is believed that the increase in
surface region deformation brought about the increase in the level of maximum residual stress and
the maximum depth at the compressive stress state.
0.000
-120.000
-240.000
-360.000
(a) F=40N (d) F=160N -480.000
-600.000
-720.000
-840.000
-960.000
(b) F=80N -1080.000
(e) F=200N
-1200.000

(c) F=120N

Fig.5 Effects of burnishing forces F (N) on residual normal stress in feed direction (MPa)
(v=1.26m/s, f=0.10mm/rev, n=1, d=10mm)
0.000
-120.000
-240.000
-360.000
(a) n=1 (d) n=4 -480.000
-600.000
-720.000
-840.000
-960.000
(b) n=2 -1080.000
(e) n=5
-1200.000

(c) n=3

Fig.6 Effects of number of tool passes n on residual normal stress in feed direction (MPa).
(F=120N, v=1.26m/s, f=0.10mm/rev, d=10mm)

Simulation results also show that an increase in burnishing speed produces little effect on either
the maximum compressive residual stress or the depth of the layer at the compressive stress state.
The increase in the feed rate leads to a decrease in the maximum compressive residual stress and the
depth of the layer at the compressive stress state, because a large feed rate will leads to a decrease
both in surface region deformation and in the inner layer. The smaller diameter balls seem to be
more effective in increasing the maximum compressive residual stress and the depth of the layer at
the compressive stress state. The number of passes is one of the most significant factors affecting
662 Advances in Materials Manufacturing Science and Technology
662 Advances in Materials Manufacturing Science and Technology

the maximum residual stress and the maximum depth at the compressive stress state (Fig.6). It is
because the repeating of the burnishing process on the same workpiece leads to an increase in
surface region deformation and in the inner layer.

Conclusions
1. A three-dimensional coupled thermal-mechanical model of ball burnishing process is presented
in this paper. The model is able to predict the effects of ball burnishing parameters (burnishing
force, feed rate, speed, number of tool passes and diameter of the ball) on surface integrity (surface
roundness, surface hardness and surface residual stress).
2. Burnishing force, ball diameter, number of passes and burnishing feed have the most significant
effect on the residual stresses. However, burnishing speed seems to just produce little effect on
those. Larger burnishing force, larger number of passes, smaller ball diameter and small feed rate
seem to be more effective in increasing in the maximum compressive residual stress and the depth
of the layer at the compressive stress state.

Acknowledgements
This research was conducted under the support the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 50075026) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 950168).

References
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Advances in Materials Manufacturing Science and Technology
10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.471-472

Finite Element Analysis of Effects of Ball Burnishing Parameters on Residual Stresses

10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.471-472.658

DOI References
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[12] M.H El-Axir and M.M. El-Khabeery: J. Mater. Process. Technol. Vol. 132 (2003), p. 82
doi:10.1016/S0924-0136(02)00269-8
[13] F. Klocke and J. Liermann: Int. J. Mach. Tools Manufact. Vol. 38 (1998), p. 419.
doi:10.1016/S0890-6955(97)00085-0