ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a very general introduction of the autofrettage process. Autofrettage is a metal-working process, where beneficial compressive residual stresses are induced in the vicinity of the inner wall of a thick-walled cylindrical or spherical vessel. The term “autofrettage” is of French origin, which means “self-hooping.” Originally the autofrettage process was developed for military applications and used in the strengthening of cannons and gun barrels. Depending upon the type of applied autofrettage load, autofrettage processes can be classified into the following types: hydraulic Autofrettage, swage Autofrettage, explosive Autofrettage, thermal Autofrettage, and rotational Autofrettage. Further research is needed on the development of equipment for carrying out thermal autofrettage processes in industry. In future, the process may be established as a potential autofrettage procedure through accurate modeling, development of experimental setup, and experimental verification of the residual stresses due to rotation.
