• Residual Stress
• Fatigue
• Laser Shock Peening

The goal of this thesis is to evaluate the capability of Laser Shock Peening (LSP) technology to improve fatigue life in open-hole aluminium specimens. Thin, dog-bone specimens were LSP treated in direct ablation mode and subsequently tested. The obtained results have not proven the advantage of LSP technology over traditional residual stress insertion techniques around open-holes, such as cold working. Therefore, additional treatment setups were evaluated and it was shown that the sequence of operations plays a crucial role in the increase of fatigue life of the treated thin aluminium specimens.