A neutron diffraction study of residual stress due to welding

Welding residual stresses have important consequences on the performance of engineering components. High residual stresses lead to loss of performance in corrosion, fatigue and fracture. However, residual stress often remains the single largest unknown in industrial damage situations. They are difficult to measure or theoretically estimate and are often significant when compared with the in-service stresses on which they superimpose. In this paper, the neutron diffraction technique is used to investigate and compare the residual stress characteristics due to various restraints for a single bead and in fully restrained samples with different numbers of beads. The aim of the research was to characterize the residual stress distribution, which arises in a component during the welding process. The findings have important consequences with respect to design of welding procedures and fitness for purpose assessments