Residual stress analysis

Residual stress analysis with X-ray diffraction (XRD) is employed in the study of the deformation of a wide range of materials. Knowing whether residual stresses are present in a material is vital information for engineers.

Improve safety

Residual stress causes unexpected failure of a technical component in a mechanical construction. Equally, the safety of a design can be enhanced by deliberately applying residual stress in opposition to external stresses. 

Using XRD for residual stress analysis

XRD cannot determine stresses directly. Instead, the strain of a set of lattice planes, in a certain direction, is observed as a shift of the 2 thèta angle of the diffraction peak. The peak shift is recorded as a function of the sample tilt angle ψ. Residual stress is then calculated using elasticity theory.

Solutions for residual stress

PANalytical offers systems and software dedicated to the analysis of residual stress:

• Instrumentation
  PANalytical's Empyrean and X'Pert PRO MRD systems can both perform stress analysis. Depending on the sample tilt angles available on the sample stage, stresses can be determined from experiments with ω-offset or with X-tilt.
  

• Software
  Stress is the XRD software module for analyzing residual stress measurements using the classical single-{hkl} sin^²ψ method. Novel techniques, such as grazing incidence and/or multiple-{hkl} stress analysis are employed for the determination of residual stress in polycrystalline coatings. Stress Plus is the recommended XRD software module for this application.