Analysis of Vibratory Stress Relief (VSR) Parameters on Mechanical and Metallurgical Properties of AISI 1008

Vibrational stress relief (VSR) treatment is a method of stress relief which is currently used for different alloys in different sizes. Since the effect of VSR has not been fully analyzed and compared versus thermal stress relief (TSR) process, its merits require wider investigations. In this paper VSR treatment has been performed with certain parameters to check and assure the advantages of the process in terms of mechanical and metallurgical improvements on AISI 1008 workpiece as a preparatory process. The chosen parameters consist frequency, time, and amplitude of vibration. Factorial design of the experiment using response surface methodology has been performed to obtain an optimal response in numerical and experimental tests. The testing coupons have been evaluated in terms of hardness, tensile strength, elasticity modulus, toughness, elongation before fracture, and micro-structure. Experimental results have been compared with finite element analysis (FEA) results and previous studies. FEA elastic-plastic model was used to extract mechanical properties, while hardening effect has been accounted for in the model. The study has demonstrated the influential performance of VSR on the mechanical properties of the samples i.e., yield strength, toughness, elongation, and elasticity modulus while hardness and microstructure have not been affected significantly.