A short-wave X-ray diffraction method to evaluate the residual stress of welding joint for 7N01 Al alloy

Abstract

The residual stress with different degree is inevitable to be introduced during the welding process for high strength 7N01 Al alloys, which will deteriorate the mechanical properties in service. Therefore, a proper characterization method is of vital importance to obtain the detailed residual stress distribution. The conventional X-ray diffraction method can only measure the residual stress of near surface but cannot determine the internal bulk stress with nondestructive way. In the present work, a new Short-Wave X-Ray Diffraction (SWXRD) test methodology was utilized, which can evaluate not only the surface but also the internal residual stress of a crystalline material by applying the monochromatic short-wave X-ray of high-energy. The results show that there is a “M” shaped distribution of residual stress of longitudinal direction (LD) in different affected zone. Furthermore, the characterization of residual stress along weld depth direction demonstrates that the middle part of weld joint is subjected to tensile stress while the rest is subjected to compressive stress.