On the Estimation of Residual Stresses of Isotropic Materials using a New Eigen-strain Based Method

In this study, a new method for estimation of residual stresses has been proposed. Although hole drilling and slitting methods are the most applicable techniques to calculate the residual stress, there are some substantial limitations to use these methods such as assuming residual stress distribution as polynomials in slitting method and the maximum depth of progress in incremental hole drilling method. Beca use of these limitations, the eigenstrains concept has been utilized to provide a linear relation between the measured elastic strains and the eigenstrain field. The finite element (FE) approach has been used to investigate an isotropic clamped beam problem involving a specified thermal strain distribution along its thickness and the proposed eigenstrain-based (ESB) method is used to predict the thermal strain and subsequently residual stress fields. In final step, the distribution of residual stresses along the thickness of the specimen predicted by the new method has been compared with results obtained by a FE analysis. Results show the benefits of the proposed method in representation of a through thickness residual stress.