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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Surface Treatment and Residual Stress

Surface Treatment and Residual Stress is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 8k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores various surface modification techniques such as Laser Shock Processing, Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment, Shot Peening, and Ultrasonic Impact Peening to induce nanostructured surface layers, improve fatigue behavior, enhance corrosion resistance, and refine grain structures in metal alloys. The focus is on understanding the effects of these techniques on microstructure evolution and residual stress, with potential applications in improving the mechanical and corrosion properties of metallic materials.

  • Laser Shock Processing
  • Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment
  • Shot Peening
  • Ultrasonic Impact Peening
  • Residual Stress
  • Nanostructured Surface Layer
  • Fatigue Behavior
  • Corrosion Resistance
  • Grain Refinement
  • Microstructure Evolution
Research works
8k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
790
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+28%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
63% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Surface Treatment and Residual Stress

Which countries lead Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (1.3k and 153 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.3k works
  2. 2 India 153 works
  3. 3 Russia 132 works
  4. 4 United States 108 works
  5. 5 Japan 107 works
  6. 6 Germany 59 works
  7. 7 Poland 46 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 46 works
  9. 9 France 46 works
  10. 10 Iran 46 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 63.1%India: 7.6%Russia: 6.5%United States: 5.4%6 others listed: 17.4%63%largest
China1,275 · 63.1%India153 · 7.6%Russia132 · 6.5%United States108 · 5.4%6 others listed351 · 17.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Jiangsu University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 50 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 50 works
  3. 3 Jiangsu UniversityChina 48 works
  4. 4 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 42 works
  5. 5 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 26 works
  6. 6 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 22 works
  7. 7 Central South UniversityChina 22 works
  8. 8 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 21 works
  9. 9 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 20 works
  10. 10 Beihang UniversityChina 19 works

Who are the leading researchers in Surface Treatment and Residual Stress?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Surface Treatment and Residual Stress include Kai You Wang, Qiang Zhang and Han Zhang.

  1. 1 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  2. 2 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  3. 3 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  4. 4 Huan Liu Australia 148k citations
  5. 5 Paul K. Chu China 130k citations
  6. 6 Dierk Raabe Germany 125k citations
  7. 7 Hao Chen China 118k citations
  8. 8 Robert O. Ritchie United States 100k citations
  9. 9 Manoj Kumar Gupta Singapore 95k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Surface Treatment and Residual Stress?

The most cited paper in Surface Treatment and Residual Stress is "Perspective on hetero-deformation induced (HDI) hardening and back stress" (Yuntian T. Zhu, Xiaolei Wu, 2019), with 1,603 citations. Next come "Back stress strengthening and strain hardening in gradient structure" (1,597) and "General relationship between strength and hardness" (1,252).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Perspective on hetero-deformation induced (HDI) hardening and back stress Yuntian T. Zhu, Xiaolei Wu · Materials Research Letters Open access 29 May 2019 1,603
2 Back stress strengthening and strain hardening in gradient structure Muxin Yang, Yue Pan, Fuping Yuan et al. · Materials Research Letters Open access 2 Mar 2016 1,597
3 General relationship between strength and hardness Peng Zhang, S. X. Li, Z. F. Zhang · Materials Science and Engineering A 10 Sep 2011 1,252
4 Making strong nanomaterials ductile with gradients K. Lu · Science 18 Sep 2014 1,183
5 Nanostructured surface layer on metallic materials induced by surface mechanical attrition treatment K. Lu, Jian Lü · Materials Science and Engineering A 4 Feb 2004 1,146
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research done?

The largest centres of Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Shanghai (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Zhenjiang.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 190 works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 110 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 75 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 61 works
  5. 5 ZhenjiangChina 54 works
  6. 6 ShenyangChina 46 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 43 works
  8. 8 JinanChina 37 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 37 works
  10. 10 HarbinChina 36 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZhenjiangCN · 54.0 works20×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Surface Treatment and Residual Stress than the world average.

See Surface Treatment and Residual Stress on the map

Where is the best place to study Surface Treatment and Residual Stress?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Jiangsu University and East China University of Science and Technology score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 20.81%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →East China Universit…Xi'an Jiaotong Unive…Jiangsu UniversityNorthwestern Polytec…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 79.718.1%17.4×42 +52.2%
2Jiangsu UniversityChina 73.718.3%28.0×48 +7.5%
3East China University of Science and TechnologyChina 67.931.2%9.5×10 +31.5%
4Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 66.020.2%6.0×22 +103.1%
5Beihang UniversityChina 64.522.2%8.2×19 +62.2%
6Wuhan University of TechnologyChina 63.221.4%10.3×18 +121.3%
7Northeastern UniversityChina 62.722.5%9.3×18 +112.0%
8Chongqing UniversityChina 61.921.4%6.3×15 +66.3%
9Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 59.716.2%4.2×26 +68.3%
10Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 59.216.6%12.0×20 +73.3%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Surface Treatment and Residual Stress, country by country

Is Surface Treatment and Residual Stress research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 28% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Surface Treatment and Residual Stress.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Surface Treatment and Residual Stress as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0092% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Surface Treatment and Residual Stress0.011% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Surface Treatment and Residual Stress over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Surface Treatment and Residual Stress10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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