Barkhausen Emission Technique for Evaluating Shot Peening Quality in High Strength Steels

In the aerospace industry, there is an continuing need to characterize the stress state in structural materials. This includes structures manufactured using high strength steels, such as landing gear components. Magnetic methods have recently been playing an increasing role in nondestructive evaluation. Of these methods, the magnetic Barkhausen effect has been used with some success due to the dependence of Barkhausen emissions on material stress states and microstructures [1], Magnetic methods have been used previously in investigating compressive overloading in high strength steels [2,3]. Fatigue failures in landing gear components have resulted in an increased awareness of the stress states and corresponding methods for nondestructive evaluation of stress.