Neutron diffraction residual stress measurements in a 316L stainless steel bead-on-plate weld specimen

Abstract

The distribution of residual stress in three orthogonal directions has been measured within a Type 316L austenitic stainless steel bead-on-plate weld specimen. Neutron diffraction was employed using the ENGIN-X instrument, located at the ISIS spallation facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK. A stress-free lattice parameter reference value was determined from a small cube, extracted from a far corner of the plate. A high magnitude of tensile residual stress was found along the weld bead in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The distributions of stress along through-thickness lines at the weld bead nominal start and stop locations and at the mid-length position showed an almost identical stress variation. However, a map of measured residual strain in the transverse direction beneath the weld bead revealed a concentration of strain located several millimetres before the nominal weld stop position where through-wall stress profiles were measured.