Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 241±244

A study on super-speed forming of metal sheet by laser shock waves

J.Z. Zhoua,*, J.C. Yanga, Y.K. Zhanga, M. Zhoub
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
b
School of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

Abstract

In this paper, the authors explore a dynamic super-speed forming method driven by laser shock waves. The initial exploration of laser shock
forming (LSF) is done through bulge testing with specimens of 430 sheet metal, using a neodymium±glass laser of pulse energy 10±30 J and
duration 20 ns (FWHM). The investigation revealed that the plastic deformation during the LSF is characterized as ultra-high strain rate, and it
is indicated that the plastic deformation increases non-linearly with the increase of the energy density of the laser. By investigating the
hardness and residual stress of the surfaces, it is conclude that LSF is a combination technique of laser shock strengthening and metal forming
for introducing strain hardening and a compressive residual stress on the surface of the workpiece. This technique can achieve forming with or
without a mold.
# 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Laser shock wave; Metal sheet forming; Ultrahigh strain rate; Residual stresses

1. Introduction 1970s [2±6]. Laser shock processing/peening (LSP) is one of

Plastic deformation or forming is generated through
mechanical pressure or thermal variation. These pressure
variations or thermal variations can be secured by a variety
of means such as press forming, hydroforming, imploding
detonation and so on. According to the magnitude of the
strain rates, all of these forming methods can be divided into
quasi-static forming and dynamical forming. Up to now
there are no reports of forming methods with strain rates of
above 105 s 1, even considering exploding forming. The
idea of using lasers for forming through a thermal process
was ®rst proposed by Kitamura [1] in the joint MIT and HPL
Committee of Japan Welding Engineering Society dating
from 1981. Steel plates, 22 mm thick, were repeatedly bent
with a 15 kW CO2 laser. The sheet was formed by residual
stress induced by external heat instead of external force.
Since then, laser thermal-stress forming as a quasi-static
method, has been the object of considerable attention. Most
papers available today are dedicated to an analytical model
of laser forming, and underestimate the micro-structural
contribution to forming.
The laser-induced shock wave has been used to investi-
gate the modi®cation of a materials surface to increase the
fatigue and corrosion resistance of the workpiece since the
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhoujz_jsu@263.net (J.Z. Zhou).
the most important methods. However, there have been no
reports of laser dynamic forming, even if it possesses even
higher strain rate and more undiscovered ®elds in physics
and materials. In this paper, the authors advance a novel
technique for the ®rst time, which is laser shock forming
(LSF), a series of experiments being done and some basic
forming characterizations being discussed.
2. Forming mechanisms
LSF is realized by applying a compressive shock wave
generated by a laser shock on the surface of the metal sheet.
Fig. 1 shows the generation procedure of the compressive
shock wave. A high intensity pulsed laser beam impacts
the surface of an energy transforming medium which con-
sisting of an opaque layer and a transparent layer. The thin
opaque layer is vaporized immediately. This vapor and
plasma absorbs the incident laser energy, then expands
and explodes violently against the surfaces of the metal
sheet and the transparent con®ning layer. The con®ning
layer traps the expanding vapor and plasma, and conse-
quently causes the pressure to rise much higher than it would
if the con®ning layer were absent. The sudden high pressure
against the surface of the metal sheet causes a shock wave to
propagate into the sample. The peak pressure of the shock
wave induced by the laser at the sample surface is larger than

0924-0136/02/$ ± see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 6 0 9 - X
242 J.Z. Zhou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 241±244
Fig. 1. Mechanism of LSF of metal sheet.
the dynamic yield strength of the material, thus the metal
sheet yields and deforms. The peak stress of the shock wave
decreases as the shock wave propagates deeper into the
metal sheet. The plastic deformation of the metal sheet
continues until the peak stress falls below the dynamic yield
strength. As the duration of the shock wave is less than 40 ns,
the forming time of metal sheet is very short (less than
80 ns), and the strain rate is ultrahigh at up to 107 s 1.
The same as for laser shock strengthening, strain hard-
ening and residual stress remain at the surface of the metal
sheet. This is the most useful effect produced by LSP. Since
LSF is also realized under deep compressive stress, the
shock surface of the metal sheet will remain in residual
compressive stress. Thus, this current method is a combina-
tion technique of laser shock strengthening and metal form-
ing.
3. Experiment procedure
The laser used is a high-power, Q-switched, pulsed neo-
dymium±glass laser, producing a pulse of 20 ns duration and
1.064 mm wavelength, with an energy per pulse of 10±30 J.
The pro®le of the laser pulse approximates to a Gaussian
distribution. An energy meter (TP-1 type) is used to monitor
the output energy of the laser during each shot. The laser
beam is directed from the laser through an optical chain of
mirrors and lenses onto the surface of the metal being
treated. The specimen material is ferritic stainless steel
SUS430, its chemical composition being shown in
Table 1. The thickness of the specimen ranges from 0.3
to 1.0 mm by 30 mm wide and 80 mm long. Before LSF the
surface of the sample is covered with a type of energy
transforming medium (black paint plus K9 glass).
A schematic diagram of how the process works is shown
in Fig. 2. The specimen is clamped by two thick metal
sheets, which have the same axial hole at the center. The
narrow top opening allows the beam to directly irradiate the
Table 1
The chemical compositions and mechanical properties of SUS430
Chemical
C Si Mn P S Ni
0.12 0.75 1.0 0.04 0.03 16.0/18.0
Fig. 2. Schematic set up for the LSF.
sample while the bottom opening allow the metal sheet to
expand in a predictable manner. The size of opening holes d1
and d2 can range from about 8 mm to about 20 mm diameter.
When the laser beam is focused onto the metal surface with
desired size d0 from 3 to 10 mm in diameter, it passes
through two layers. One is a black material with a thickness
of 80 mm coated on the surface of the metal as a energy
absorbing layer, whilst the other is a transparent glass disk
with the diameter of 20 mm and a thickness of 4.5 mm,
which is pressed against the energy absorbing layer. A series
of sheet metal bulging experiments was conducted by
selecting different laser energy, border condition, etc. The
forming pro®les are measured using a Taylor Hobson con-
tour and the residual stresses of the material surface were
measured using X-ray diffraction.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Laser energy versus bulging profile
Fig. 3 shows the typical pro®le of the bulging obtained by
a single laser shock, the displacement of the cross-section
pro®le being obtained using the Taylor Hobson contour
meter. As a result of the laser shock, a bulge forms in the
metal sheet. As shown in Fig. 3, the forming pro®le of metal
sheet is like a spherical cap. Generally it is circular in shape
with a depth h0 at the center. Fig. 4 shows that the depth of
bulging is dependent upon the intensity of the laser pulse. As
the incident pulse energy is increased, more ablation occurs,
the peak pressure of the resulting bulge increases, and
consequently the strain energy in the metal sheet increases,
so that the bulging height is increased.
Using a spherical cap assumption, the pro®le of the bulge
can be determined by relating various parameters, including
the radius of the top and the bottom opening d1 and d2; the
thickness of the metal sheet, d; the metal sheet modulus, E;
the radius of the curvature of the bulge, R; Poisson's ratio of
the metal sheet, n; and the power density of the laser spot.
Mechanical Properties (annealed)
Cr Yield strength Tensile strength Elongation Hardness
(MPa) (MPa) (%) (HV)
205 450 22 200
 J.Z. Zhou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 241±244 243

Fig. 3. The typical cross-section profile of the bulging tested by Taylor Hobson.

sample and boundary condition, the curvature of the bulge as

a function of the pulse energy is shown in Fig. 5. Each black
square stands for a laser shock experiment. It is clearly that
the curvature of the bulge R is a linear function of the pulse
energy. As the incident pulse energy is increased, the peak
pressure of the resulting bulge increases, and consequently
the curvature of the bulge decreases linearly. The data is ®t to
a straight line, the ®tting parameters of the black squares,
along with the Pearson sample correlation coef®cient ``R''
value of the ®t, being displayed in Fig. 6, and indicating the
trend of the curvature R with the radius of the bottom
opening. It is easy to see that as the radius of the bottom
opening increases, the curvature of the bulge increases
exponentially under the similar pulse energy. This informa-
tion can help in the selection of a suitable pulse energy to
Fig. 4. Laser energy vs. bulging height.
obtain a desired pro®le by LSF.

Ordinarily the normal maximum displacement, which 4.2. Residual stresses analysis
equals the depth h0 of the bulge at the center, has a ®xed
relationship to d2 and R. The curvature of the bulge R is the The surface distribution pro®le of residual stresses is like
reverse of the radius of the spherical cap. For a certain its bulging shape, a spherical cap. At the apex of the cap the

Fig. 5. The curvature of the bulge vs. the pulse energy under the Fig. 6. The various trend of the curvature R of the experiments in Fig. 5
conditions of d0 ˆ 5, d1 ˆ 12, d2 ˆ 8 and d ˆ 0:5. with the radius of the bottom opening.
244 J.Z. Zhou et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 129 (2002) 241±244
Fig. 7. Bulging height vs. residual stress under the condition of d ˆ 0:45
mm and boundary F12/F15.
Fig. 8. Diameter of the bottom hole vs. residual stress under the condition
of laser energy 20.3 J and d ˆ 0:5 mm.
residual stress reaches a maximum. Fig. 7 shows the rela-
tionship between residual stress and the bulging height,
showing that when the bulging height increases, the residual
stress on the both sides increases, but with the variation
being very small. Fig. 8 shows the residual stress as a
function of the diameter d2 of the bottom opening, indicating
that with the increasing of the diameter d2 the residual stress
increases, ranging from 100 to 280 MPa, at the apex of
the laser untreated side (the convex surface) and from 28 to
150 MPa at the apex of the concave surface when the laser
energy is 19.4 J and the beam diameter is F5 mm. At the
convex surface the residual stress is always compressive
because of spring-back, and the maximum of the stress at the
apex is about 305 MPa. As the distance to the top point
increases, the peak residual compressive stress decreases,
but at the bulge outside edge it tends to the original surface
stress of about 29 MPa. The residual stress on the concave
surface may be tensile or compressive and the trend of the
variation is much the same as for the other side. If the
thickness of the metal sheet is above a threshold, or the laser
energy intensity is above a threshold, the residual stress may
be compressive. In the current experiments, when the sheet
thickness is greater than 0.6 mm the residual stress will be
compressive. Thus, it can be concluded that LSF can shape
thick components without inducing unwanted tensile stress
at the metal surface.
5. Conclusions
The authors have presented a novel technique of metal
sheet forming, and carried out a series of bulging test
experiments, an ultrahigh strain rate dynamic forming pro-
cess utilizing laser shock waves being established. In con-
clusion, LSF is a mechanical process, not a thermal process,
realized by applying a compressive shock wave generated by
laser peening on the surface of the metal sheet, being a
combination technique of laser shock strengthening and
metal forming, both of which introduce a compressive
residual stress on the surface of the workpiece. The inves-
tigation shows the potential of the process for becoming a
¯exible manufacturing process with excellent reproducibil-
ity and very short manufacturing time. Even more impor-
tantly, an uncovered but signi®cant research ®eld is found,
including deformation mechanisms, mechanical response,
ductile-brittle transition, phase-transition, dislocation, fail-
ure behavior, etc., of materials under ultrahigh strain rate.
This not only provides large new research areas but also
implies many more applications.
Acknowledgements
The project is supported by National Nature Science
Foundation of China and 863 HI-TECH Program Funds
of China (Grant No. 2002AA336030).The authors gratefully
thank Professor Hongxin Wu and Professor Daho Guo for
their experimental help.
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