Residual Stress Measurement Within a Single Pass Groove Weld Specimen Utilising Neutron Diffraction and the Contour Method

This paper describes the measurement of longitudinal residual stresses within a specially designed 200×180×25 mm single groove weld specimen. The purpose of these measurements was to quantify the residual stress field arising from a single stringer weld bead laid down within the constraint of a groove in order to validate finite element simulations of the welding process. Measurements were made over the cross section at the mid-bead length, utilising the relatively new Contour method and neutron diffraction. Non destructive neutron diffraction measurements were made using ENGIN-X, the engineering spectrometer at the ISIS facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK). The Contour method measurement was applied destructively at the Open University (UK), producing a detailed full-field residual stress map. Results from these measurements indicate a peak tensile longitudinal residual stress of ∼300 MPa within the parent material adjacent to the weld bead. Good agreement is found between both techniques.