Residual Stress State due to Explosive Hardening

Residual surface stresses in high manganese steels explosively hardened have been reported recently. These results, however, were inconsistent as both tensile and compressive residual stresses were measured. A sufficient conclusion with respect of residual stress formation in the process of explosive hardening is not yet reached. This paper reports two different types of explosive hardening process, making use of a tangential detonation process and a high velocity impact method. Residual surface stresses and the depth distributions of residual stress were measured by using an X-ray diffraction technique. As a result, residual surface stresses were obtained of tensile character in the case of tangential detonation and of compressive character in the case of high velocity impact, respectively.