Effects of Peening on Fatigue Life of Wrought SAE 5454 Aluminum Automotive Road Wheels

This paper describes the application of peening to wrought aluminum automotive road wheels. Peening parameter development considerations including optimum intensity and peening media size are discussed. Standard SAE fatigue tests for automotive road wheels are applied. It is concluded that peening enhances fatigue life of wrought aluminum automotive road wheels. It was found that optimization of this enhancement requires compressive stresses imparted within a narrow tolerance.