Residual Stress

Residual stresses are the internal stresses created inside a component, during manufacturing. Harmful residual stresses can lead to stress corrosion cracking, distortion, fatigue cracking, premature failures in components, and instances of over design. Techniques, such as heat treating, are applied to help manage potentially harmful residual stresses created during manufacturing.

Other techniques, such as shot peening, are used to introduce beneficial residual stresses into a component to help increase fatigue life. Knowledge of the residual stress state is required to ensure that these processes have been correctly applied. Small changes in the residual stress state can often have a significant effect on the life of a component.

The nondestructive nature of the x-ray diffraction technique has made residual stress characterization a useful tool for process optimization, design improvements and failure analysis.

INTRODUCTION TO RESIDUAL STRESS