Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Research on the technical principle and typical applications of laser

shock processing
Jiajun Wu a,b,c,⇑, Jibin Zhao a,b,c,⇑, Hongchao Qiao a,b, Xianliang Hu a,b,c, Yuqi Yang a,b,c
a
State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning, China
b
Institutes for Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110169, Liaoning, China
c
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Laser shock processing (LSP) is a novel surface hardening technology, utilizing the stress effect generated
Received 21 August 2020 by laser-induced plasma shock waves, with the characteristics of better hardening effects, higher process-
Accepted 20 October 2020 ing precision and strong controllability. Nowadays, LSP is widely applied in many fields such as the high-
Available online xxxx
end equipment manufacturing industry. In order to further understand the LSP technology. In this work,
the technical principle of LSP is reviewed through basic principle of LSP, enhanced mechanical properties,
Keywords: micro-structure evolution and simple process mechanism. In addition, some typical applications of LSP
Laser shock processing
are introduced briefly from the aspect of aerospace industry, nuclear power industry, biomedical and
Mechanical properties
Micro-structure evolution
material forming. This work will provide a theoretical guidance for researchers to further explore the
Simple process mechanism mechanism of LSP and promote to the development of LSP.
Typical applications Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Materials, Processing & Characterization.

1. Introduction
In the fields of the mechanical manufacturing, the wear [1], cor-
rosion [2] and fatigue [3] are the main failure forms for material.
And the related literature report [4] showed that more than 80%
of the failures were caused by the wear, corrosion and fatigue, orig-
inating from the surface of materials. So the structures & properties
of materials’ surface play a crucial impact on the comprehensive
properties of materials. In addition, with the alternating load, the
cracks would be occurred on the surface of materials, which will
lead to the fatigue of samples. And the further extended cracks
may lead to the integral damage of materials even the equipment
fault [5]. In order to improve the reliability of components and
extend the service life of materials without changing the properties
of matrix materials, surface hardening technologies or methods are
applied in many fields. The common/traditional material surface
hardening technologies mainly consists of shot peening (SP) [6],
surface rolling [7], hammering [8] and extrusion [9], etc. The com-
mon characteristics of these surface technologies is introduce the
residual compressive stress layer with a certain value and depth
in the near-surface of materials, and the residual compressive
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: wujiajun@sia.cn (J. Wu), jbzhao@sia.cn (J. Zhao).
stress can offset part of the working load (tensile stress), so the
mechanical properties and fatigue resistance of materials is
improved [5,10].
With the repaid development of high-end equipment manufac-
turing industry such as aerospace, weapons, nuclear power and
transportation, etc. The requirements for surface properties of
materials becomes higher and higher [11,12]. These traditional
surface hardening technologies are gradually difficult to meet the
production requirements for high performance equipment due to
the residual compressive layer can be only reached to 75–
250 lm at most and the hardening effect is uncontrollable
[13,14]. Laser shock processing (LSP) [15–17] is a novel surface
hardening technology with the better hardening effects, higher
processing precision and strong controllability (such as the laser
energy, laser pulse width, laser spot radius and machining path
can be adjusted by the related control system). So LSP can solve
these problems of traditional surface hardening technologies well,
and it can be considered as a surface hardening technology that
needs further development & application in general [18].
In order to further understand the LSP technology. In this work,
the technical principle of LSP is reviewed through basic principle of
LSP, enhanced mechanical properties, micro-structure evolution
and the simple process mechanism. In addition, some typical appli-
cations of LSP are introduced briefly from the aspect of aerospace

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.618
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Processing & Characterization.

Please cite this article as: J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al., Research on the technical principle and typical applications of laser shock processing, Materials
Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.618
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al.
industry, nuclear power industry, biomedical and material
forming.
2. The technical principle of laser shock peening
2.1. Basic principle of LSP
The process of LSP treatment, which is based on the physical
process of the interaction between high power density nanosecond
pulse laser and the target material, utilizing the stress effect gener-
ated by the laser-induced plasma shock waves to treat the surface
of material [19]. When the laser with high power density (
1GW/
cm2) and short pulse (ns order) irradiate the surface of material,
the surface layer will absorb the laser energy quickly and vaporize,
and at the same time, the dense plasma with high temperature
(>104K), high pressure and ejected away from the material will
be formed, which will lead to super high pressure (GPa order)
shock waves that propagate inside to the material [20,21].
The basic schematic principle of LSP is shown in Fig. 1 [22]. As
shown in Fig. 1, the process structure of constrain layer and
absorbing protective layer is selected in the LSP treatment in gen-
eral. The surface of material need to be covered with an absorbing
protective layer. Then the transparent constrain layer need to be
covered above that layer. With the irradiation of high power den-
sity laser pulse, the absorbing protective layer will absorb the laser
pulse energy and rapidly vaporize and ionize to form the laser-
induced plasma. Then the formed plasma will expansive quickly.
Due to the restriction of constrain layer, the peak pressure of
laser-induced plasma shock waves can be reached to several GPa
and its duration is in the order of tens of nanoseconds. Due to
the pressure of shock waves is high enough and the strain rate
can be up to 106 s1 in a short time, the deformation and dynamic
yield will be occurred in LSP treated volume. As a result, the severe
plastic deformation and compressive residual stress layer with a
certain value & depth will be generated in near-surface of material,
and accompanying the formation of crystal defects such as disloca-
tions and twins at the same time [19]. These changes can con-
tribute to the hardening effect and evidently improve the
mechanical properties such as fatigue life, hardness, wear resis-
tance and corrosion resistance, etc. [23]. The process structure of
constrain layer and absorbing protective layer is the most typical
structure of LSP at present, which mainly has following character-
istics [14]: (i) provide super high pressure for laser-induced plasma
shock waves (the peak pressure of laser-induced plasma shock
waves can be reached to several GPa or even TPa order, which is
difficult to achieved by the conventional machining methods), (ii)
provide high energy for the LSP treatment (the laser pulse energy
Fig. 1. The basic schematic principle of LSP [22].
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
can be reached to tens of joules, and the peak power density can
be reached to GW/cm2 order within tens of nanoseconds, which
realizes the high efficient utilization of laser energy), (iii) induce
the ultra-high strain rate severe plastic deformation in near-
surface of material (the strain rate can be up to 106 s1, which is
about 1000 times higher than the mechanical shock and about
100 times higher than the explosive forming). Currently, the water
or optical glass are usually used as the constrain layer, and the
black paint, black tape or aluminum foil are usually used as the
absorbing protective layer. In addition, whether constrain layer
and absorbing protective layer, its thickness should be suitable,
and the related summary can refer the ref. [24,25].
2.2. Enhanced mechanical properties
The principle of LSP tell us that the enhanced mechanical prop-
erties are the desired beneficial surface change of material. In this
section, the enhanced mechanical properties are mainly discussed
from the aspect of residual stress, hardness and fatigue life.
The residual stress is the most important parameter to evaluate
the excellent hardening effect of LSP treatment process. And the
more excellent hardening effect of LSP is generally illustrated by
comparing the residual stress distribution of material after the
treatment of SP and LSP. The experiment of GH742 superalloy
induced by LSP and SP was investigated by Gao [26]. Where in this
LSP experiment, the laser parameters used were 4–30 J for the laser
pulse energy, 10 ns for the laser pulse width, 1064 nm for the
wavelength and 10 Hz for the working repetition rate (the detailed
information of experimental setup is listed in Table 1, the same
below). And the residual stress distribution of GH742 superalloy
by the treatment of SP and LSP is shown in Fig. 2 [26]. As observed
in Fig. 2, both LSP and SP can induce compressive residual stresses
in near-surface layer, while the compressive residual stress layer is
deeper for LSP treated samples and the maximum residual com-
pressive stress locate at surface. The value of surface residual com-
pressive stress are 800–1000 MPa for the SP samples and 800–
1200 MPa for the LSP samples. But the depth of compressive resid-
ual stress layer are 0.2–0.4 mm for SP samples and 1.0–1.4 mm for
LSP samples. With the treatment of LSP, the distribution of the
obtained compressive residual stress is relatively uniform. Gener-
ally, the maximum compressive residual stress is located on the
surface, and the compressive residual stress is decreased with
the depth of compressive residual stress layer [19]. And the resid-
ual stress is closely related to the laser process parameters of
experiment. With the increasing of laser power density or laser
pulse energy, the pressure of shock waves and the induced com-
pressive residual stress will be increased. However, Peyre et al.
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1
Main experiment parameters of LSP provided by selected references reports in section 2.2.

References Material Type of laser Laser parameters Absorbing Constrain

system protective layer
Wavelength Pulse Laser Diameter Repetitionrate Overlap
layer
(nm) width(ns) energy (J) (mm) (Hz) rate
Fig. 2(b)-Gao [26] GH742 Nd glass 1064 10 4–30 – 10 – Black tape Water
Fig. 3-Zhang [28] Ti-6Al-4 V Nd:glass 1064 10 15 5 0.5 40% Al foil Water
Fig. 4 (a)-Ren [30] K417 Nd:YAG 1064 10 6 3 – 50% Black tape Water
Fig. 4(b)-Lu [31] Single crystal Nd:YAG 1064 14 6 2 single – Black tape Water
Fig. 5-Zhang [33] LY12CZ Q-switched 1064 23 25 8 – – Black tape Water

Fig. 2. The residual stress distribution of GH742 superalloy by the treatment of SP and LSP [26].

[27] found that when the laser power density over a certain thresh-
old, the maximum compressive residual stress isn’t increased with
the laser power density (this similar phenomenon can be seen in
Fig. 2(b)), but the depth of compressive residual stress layer is still
increased and the maximum residual stress is located inside mate-
rial rather than on the surface of material. In addition, the number
of shocks is also an important process parameter. Zhang et al. [28]
studied the effect of number of laser shocks on Ti-6Al-4 V alloy by
using 15 J energy, 10 ns pulse width, 1064 nm wavelength, 0.5 Hz
repetition rate and 5 mm beam diameter on the laser. And the
experiment result is shown in Fig. 3. As observed in Fig. 3, the
residual stress of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy was increased with the number
of shocks. When the number of laser shocks is one time, the max-
imum residual stress is located at the center of LSP area with the
value of 340 MPa. When the number of laser shocks is increased
to two times, the maximum residual stress is located at the center
of LSP area with the value of 420 MPa. The repeated laser shocks
can contribute to the beneficial effect on the compressive residual
stress levels on the alloy surface. However, excessive times of laser
shocks cannot increase the residual stress obviously. Generally, the
times of laser shocks should be within 4 times.
Hardness is a parameter reflects the comprehensive mechanical
property of a material, which indicates the ability of resistance to
elastic deformation, plastic deformation and fracture [29]. Besides

Fig. 3. The effect of number of shocks on compressive residual stress [28].

3
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al.
the induced the compressive residual stress layer, the improved
hardness after the LSP treatment also makes the major contribu-
tion to the extended fatigue life. LSP experiments have been carried
out by researchers on the K417 Ni-based superalloy [30] and the
single crystal Ni-based superalloy[31], and the improved hardness
by LSP treatment is shown in Fig. 4. As observed in Fig. 4, the LSP
area exhibit a greater hardness. For instance, with the laser param-
eters used were 6 J for the laser pulse energy, 10 ns for the laser
pulse width, 1064 nm for the wavelength and 3 mm for the diam-
eter of the circle spot, LSP can further improved the hardness by
37.9% from 389.2HV to 536.7HV. This enhanced hardness belongs
to the surface hardening phenomenon, which is attributed to the
strain hardening effect through the near-surface layer severe plas-
tic deformation [32].
As per the prior discussion, not only the value and depth of
laser-induced compressive residual stress but also the hardness,
playing a critical roles on the determination of fatigue life of metal-
lic materials. Fig. 5 shows the extended fatigue life of LY12CZ alu-
minum alloy treated by LSP [33], where the laser parameters used
in this experiment were 25 J for the laser pulse energy, 23 ns for
the laser pulse width, 1064 nm for the wavelength and 8 mm for
the diameter of the circle spot. It can be found that the finial fati-
gue life of LSP treated sample can be added up to 275,420 cycles,
which is about 350% higher than the untreated sample. So the
LSP treatment is an effective method to increase the fatigue life
of metallic material. This can be explained that the LSP treatment
brings the severe plastic deformation and crystal defects, which
can increase the dislocation density, resulting in the improve the
material ductility and extend the material fatigue life [34].
2.3. Micro-structure evolution
Micro-structure evolution under LSP is the crucial geometric
characteristics of materials that has a great impact on the service
performances [35]. And the surface topography evolution is a phys-
ical parameter to reflect and characterize the degree of plastic
deformation [20]. Surface roughness is one of the most important
parameters to evaluate the surface topography evolution. Gill
et al. [36] took the LSP experiment of Ni-based superalloy IN718
SPF and investigated the surface topography evolution (the
detailed information of experimental setup is listed in Table 2,
the same below). And the surface profiles of samples without
and with LSP treatment is shown in Fig. 6. Clearly, the surface
roughness of LSP treated sample with the average of Ra = 4.18 mm
higher than that of without LSP treated sample with the average
of Ra = 120 nm, which can be ascribed the severe plastic deforma-
tion induced by the stress effect of shock waves.
Fig. 4. The improved hardness by LSP treatment: (a) K417 Ni-based superalloy [30], (b) Single crystal Ni-based superalloy [31].
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and scanning electron
microscope (SEM) are the efficacious means employed to study the
micro-structure evolution during processing. The Ti-6Al-4 V alloy
was subjected to LSP treatment with the laser parameters used
were 1.4 J for the laser pulse energy, 7 ns for the laser pulse width,
2 Hz for the repetition rate and 1.8 mm for the diameter of the cir-
cle spot [37]. Fig. 7 shows the nanograin formation in LSP region of
Ti-6Al-4 V alloy. And the nanosized particles existed in both HCP
and BCC phase, and its mechanical mechanism is very similar to
that reported for severe plastic deformation process [38,39]. Due
to the positive effect of the formation of nanostructure in near-
surface, the fatigue life of LSP treated sample will improved signif-
icantly. The micro-structure evolution by LSP is an important fea-
ture, which is related to the laser process parameters and the
heat treatment condition of metallic materials or alloys closely,
and these discussion can refer the ref. [40] for detail.
With the stress effect generated by shock waves, the strain rate
in plastic deformation layer can be reached to 107s1 during LSP. So
the dislocation density of LSP layer will be increased and structure
will be changed, forming a variety of hardening sub-fine structures
and improving the fatigue life of metallic materials or alloys [41].
The micro-structures of GH4133 alloy before and after LSP treat-
ment is shown in Fig. 8 [42]. As observed in Fig. 8, the matrix struc-
tures of GH4133 alloy is composed of large-size equiaxed grains,
and the LSP treatment can introduce a large number of refined
grains and twins in the LSP area of alloy by the severe plastic defor-
mation. Lu et al. [43] investigated the effect of LSP treatment on the
fatigue properties of Ni-based single crystal alloy (R = rmin/
rmax = 0.1, 700 °C), and the result showed that the LSP treatment
can improve the fatigue life of Ni-based single crystal alloy. Where
the laser parameters used in this experiment were 6 J for laser
energy, 1064 nm for wavelength, 14 ns for pulse width, 2 Hz for
repetition and 1 mm in diameter of circle spot. And the longitudi-
nal cross-sections of failed fatigue samples and corresponding
schematics of failure mechanisms is shown in Fig. 9. As observed
in Fig. 9, the fatigue crack of the material originated from a
micro-pore and propagated along the {1 1 1} crystallographic
plane, and the fatigue fracture zone is located inside the material.
2.4. Simple process mechanism
According to the prior studies of the enhanced mechanical
properties and the micro-structure evolution, it is very important
for researchers to study the process mechanism by establishing
the relationship among the LSP process, micro-structure and prop-
erty [32].
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 5. The extended fatigue life of LY12CZ aluminum alloy by LSP [33].

Table 2
Main experiment parameters of LSP provided by selected references reports in section 2.3.

References Material Type of laser Laser parameters Absorbing Constrain

system protective layer
Wavelength Pulse Laser Diameter Repetitionrate Overlap
layer
(nm) width(ns) energy (J) (mm) (Hz) rate
Fig. 6-Gill [36] IN718 SPF Nd:glass 1054 28.6 8.23 2 – 50% Black tape Water
Fig. 7-Kumar [37] Ti-6Al-4 V Nd:YAG – 7 1.4 2 5 35% Black paint Water
Fig. 8 -Li [42] GH4133 Nd:YAG 1064 20 10.8 4 – 66% Al foil Water
Fig. 9-Lu [43] Single crystal Nd:YAG 1064 14 6 1 2 50% Black tapes Water

Fig. 6. The surface profiles of samples without and with LSP treatment [36].

The principle of LSP tell us that the laser-induced plasma shock Based on the Fabbro Model, the peak pressure of laser-induced
waves is the power for material hardening. In LSP process, only the plasma shock waves can be expressed as follow.
pressure of laser-induced plasma shock waves exceeds the Hugo-
0:5
n  
niet elastic limit (HEL) of material, the plastic deformation in Pmax ðGPaÞ ¼ 0:01  Z 0:5 g  cm2  s1
near-surface layer of metallic materials or alloys will be occurred. 2n þ 3
 
According to the research of Johnson et al.[44], the HEL is related to  I0:5
e GW  cm2 ð2Þ
the dynamic yield strength.
Where Pmax is the peak pressure of laser-induced plasma shock
waves, n is the fraction of absorbed energy, Z is the combined acous-
1m
HEL ¼ rdyn ð1Þ tic impedance, Ie is the laser power density. And the Z and I e can be
1  2m expressed as following equations.

Where m is the Poisson’s ratio, rdyn is the dynamic yield strength at 2 1 1

¼ þ ð3Þ
high strain rates. Z Z1 Z2

5
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx



CeCps Pmax  HEL
Lp ¼ ð10Þ
Ce  Cp 2HEL

sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
k þ 2l
Ce ¼ ð11Þ
q

sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
k þ 2=3l
Cp ¼ ð12Þ
q

Where Lp is depth of plastic deformation layer. Ce and Cp are the

velocity of elastic waves and plastic waves, respectively. q is the
mass density of target material.
Clearly, the depth of plastic deformation layer is increased with
the pressure of the laser-induced plasma shock waves.
Fig. 7. The TEM image in LSP region of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy [37]. Based on the depth of plastic deformation layer and the strain
rate. The surface residual stress can be calculated as follow.
Z i ¼ qi Di ð4Þ
  8 Lp
4El rsurf ¼ r0 - lep ð1 þ mÞ=ð1  mÞ þ r0 1 - ð1 þ m Þ ð13Þ
Ie ¼ ð5Þ p d
pd s2

Where i = 1 or 2, which represent the target material and constraint Where rsurf is the surface residual stress after the LSP treatment,r0
layer, respectively. qi, Di are the mass density and the propagation is the surface residual stress before the LSP treatment.
velocity of shock waves, respectively. El is the laser pulse energy, As we all know, one of the important features of LSP treatment
d is the diameter of the circle laser spot, and s is the laser pulse is that the dislocation density is increased. And the increasing
width. hardness and the dislocation density can be expressed as the fol-
According to the above process parameters and equations, the lowing relationship [45].
plastic strain can be calculated as follow. pffiffiffiffiffiffi

 DH ¼ K h MaGb qd ð14Þ
2HEL Pmax
ep ¼ 1 ð6Þ
3k þ 2l HEL Where, 4H, M, G, b, a, Kh and qd are the hardness, Taylor factor,
shear modulus of metallic materials, Burgers vector magnitude,
Em
k¼ ð7Þ constant, the slope of the Hall–Petch plot [45,46] and dislocation
ð1 þ tÞð1  2mÞ
density, respectively.
E
l¼ ð8Þ
2ð1 þ mÞ
3. The typical applications of laser shock processing
Where ep is the plastic strain, E is Young’s modulus, k and l are the
Lame’s constants. As previously stated, the LSP has the advantage of significant
So the average strain rate ep’ dependent on the laser-induced strengthening effect, strong controllability and good adaptability.
plasma shock waves rising time t can defined as follow. So the LSP technology has been receiving rapid development in
recent years, and it is applied in more and more industry fields
ep þ pmax
ep 0 ¼ E
ð9Þ [47]. However, the related literature reports showed that only
t the United States of America (USA) and China have realized the
The propagation of shock waves, which can induce the stress large-scale industrialization of LSP at present [11,41]. In this work,
effect and lead to the plastic deformation. When the Pmax is less some typical applications of LSP are introduced briefly from the
than the HEL, the plastic deformation will be end. And the depth aspect of aerospace industry, nuclear power industry, biomedical
of plastic deformation layer can calculated as follow. and material forming.

Fig. 8. The micro-structures of GH4133 alloy before and after LSP treatment [42].

6
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al.
Fig. 9. The longitudinal cross-sections of failed fatigue samples and corresponding schematics of failure mechanisms [43].
3.1. Aerospace industry
The most common application for LSP technology is the aero-
space industry. As an effective surface hardening technology, LSP
can evidently improve the mechanical properties and extend the
fatigue life for the pivotal products of aerospace, such as gas tur-
bine compressor blades, plate valves, gear shafts, discs, rotor com-
ponents and so on [13,16,48]. In addition, the LSP treatment can
also be used to harden the aircraft landing gear. In 1997, the Gen-
eral Electric Company (GE) first applied the LSP technology to treat
the F101 turbine fan blades [48], and the high-cycle test result of
F101 turbine fan blades is shown in Fig. 10. The experiment result
showed that LSP treatment has obvious advantage in improve the
fatigue strength and ability of fan blades to object foreign object
damage (FOD) compared with SP. In order to improve the ability
of aircraft engine to against the FOD, the USA increased the invest-
ments to develop the LSP technology.
Since 2000, the USA air force has set up 4 major manufactur-
ing technology plan, which solved the industry application prob-
lems of LSP efficiency, mobile production and so on [49]. In 2001,
the LSP Technologies Incorporation used the LSP technology to
treat over 800 engine blades for the Rolls-Royce company, which
is the first application of LSP treatment on the fields of commer-
cial aircraft engine. In 2004, the USA air force has built a special
LSP production line for the overall leaf disk of F22 fighters, and
has released the AMS-2546 LSP standard [50]. Up to 2009, the
ratios of LSP treatment applied in F22 fighters was reached to
70% [16].
Fig. 10. The high-cycle test result of F101 turbine fan blades [48].
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
3.2. Nuclear power industry
In the fields of nuclear power industry, the inhibition of stress
corrosion for the key components of nuclear reactors and nuclear
waste containers is very important tasks. In order to prevent the
key components of boiling water reactor from the stress corrosion
and crack initiation, the Toshiba Corporation (Japan) began to
study the improvement in fatigue and corrosion performance of
key components of nuclear power station by laser shock processing
without coating (LSPwC) since 1999 [51]. And in 2002, the LSPwC
technology was fully applied to all the nuclear power plants, which
were built by Toshiba Corporation. Fig. 11 shows the example of
application of LSPwC in boiling water reactor [52]. As observed in
Fig. 11, the laser pulses travel about 50 m from the laser system
to the irradiation head through the optical fiber cable. In 2010,
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) of USA applied
the LSP technology to treat the welds of Al22 alloy container for
nuclear waste [13,53]. After the LSP treatment, it converts the ten-
sile residual stress in the welds area of the containers in to com-
pressive residual stress successfully, which provides the technical
guarantee for these containers being under the Yucca Mountain
for over 10000 years without nuclear leakage.
3.3. Biomedical
The common biomedical metallic materials or alloys consists of
stainless steel, titanium, titanium, Mg-based materials and cobalt
Fig. 11. The example of application of LSPwC in boiling water reactor [52].
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al.
Fig. 12. The rigid spinal implants [55].
chromium alloy, etc. And the elastic modulus and mass density of
these materials are closed to natural bone but still exist some dis-
parities, which will lead to the mismatch of mechanical properties
in contact surface easily. In addition, the corrosion resistance and
wear resistance of metallic materials or alloys as well as the bind-
ing force of the metallic materials or alloys and the surrounding
tissue interface need to be further improved [54]. So it is necessary
to harden the surface of biomedical metallic materials or alloys.
In 2010, Mannava et al. [55] applied the LSP process to restore
the fatigue strength debit of the rigid spinal implants in University
of Cincinnati (see in Fig. 12). And the related prototype rod test
results can clearly indicated that about 3 times improvement in
flexibility and an increase of ratio from 68% to 75% in fatigue load
after the treatment of LSP. In 2012, the research on the bio-
corrosion and wear performance of Ti13Nb13Zr alloy treated by
LSP was studied by Zhu [56], and the experiment results showed
that the wear mechanism of samples treated by LSP mainly con-
sisted of abrasive wear and slight adhesive wear. At the same time,
the corrosion & wear resistance of the alloy on surface was
improved about 24%. In 2013, the surface nano-architectures and
their effects on the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior
of Ti-based orthopedic implants was studied by Wu et al. [57].
Fig. 13. The example of 3D nanostructure forming by LSP [61].
8
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
The LSP technology can effectively produce nano architectures on
surface of Ti-based orthopedic implants, which improve the
in vivo biocompatibility and anti-corrosion capability.
3.4. Material forming
The fatigue performances and mechanical properties of material
is closely related to the shape and size of that [58]. So the material
forming process has received rapid development. As the most
advanced material surface hardening technology at present, LSP
has been proved to be a viable means for flexible shaping and
adjusting of metal plate [59]. In this mini-section, the authors
introduced several application of LSP in the field of material form-
ing, which can broaden people’s insight.
Different from the traditional material forming technologies,
LSP utilizes the stress effect induced by shock waves rather than
thermal effect to obtain the bending deformation with convex or
concave. With the stress effect, LSP can not only ensure the form-
ing quality, but also improve the mechanical properties. So the
application of LSP on material forming has received widespread
attention. In 1973, the researchers successfully utilized the LSP
treatment to induced the plastic deformation of Al foil and stain-
less steel plate [13]. In 2007, the function on the bending of the
steel by LSP was experimentally studied by Edward et al. [60]. In
2012, the Metal Improvement Company (MIC) successfully applied
the LSP technology to form Boeing747-8 aircraft wing aluminum
alloy shins (a 10 mm thick 7075 aluminum alloy plate can be
formed into a bow with radius of 230 mm), which is the first indus-
trial application of LSP in material forming field [13,14].
Apart from the purpose of obtaining the bending deformation
with convex or concave, a special 3D nanostructure also can be
obtained by LSP. And the challenging task was completed by Gao
et al. [61] in 2014 (see in Fig. 13). As shown in Fig. 13(a), prior
the LSP, it need to prepare a special 3D nanostructure mole, and
the stress effect induced by LSP can press the metallic materials
into the nano mold, thereby forming a unique nanostructure on
the surface of the metallic sheet. And the Fig. 13(b) shows a
large-area nanopyramids on the surface of a 2.5-mm-thick sheet
of polycrystalline Ag (with micrometer scale grain size). The
smooth surfaces and sharp tips of the pyramids indicate the
remarkable formability induced by LSP.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, the technical principle of LSP was summarized
with a focus on the basic principle of LSP, enhanced mechanical
properties, micro-structure evolution and simple process mecha-
J. Wu, J. Zhao, H. Qiao et al.
nism. The typical application of LSP was introduced briefly from
the aspect of aerospace industry, nuclear power industry, biomed-
ical and material forming. The knowledge gained from this paper
will provides a theoretical guidance for researchers to further
explore the mechanism of LSP and promote to the development
of LSP theory.
(1) Under the stress effect generated by LSP, it can lead to differ-
ent change trends in micro-structure of metallic materials or alloy,
and enhance the mechanical properties such as compressive resid-
ual stress, hardness and fatigue life.
(2) Based on the summaries of enhance properties and micro-
structure evolution, the study for process mechanism by establish-
ing the relationship among the LSP process, micro-structure and
property is an important research task.
(3) The LSP technology can be anticipated to apply in more and
more fields by using the laser generated stress effect.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This work was co-supported by the NSFC-Liaoning Province
United Foundation of China (Grant No.U1608259) and the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51875558).
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Jiajun Wu received his Bachelor’s degree in Process Equipment and Control Engi-
neering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China, in 2016.
Currently he is pursuing PhD at Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Acad-
emy of Sciences. His main research interest is laser shock processing online mon-
itoring technology. E-mail:wujiajun@sia.cn.
Jibin Zhao received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Hefei
University of Technology in 1996, his Master’s degree from Shandong University in
2000 and his PhD from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004,
respectively. He is a professor in Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. His research interests include computer-aided design, rapid
prototyping and laser engineering. E-mail:jbzhao@sia.cn.