Use of Magnetic Anisotropy Method for Assessing Residual Stresses in Metal Structures

Abstract

A series of experiments on measuring of difference between the main mechanical stresses (DPMS) was carried out using a mechanical stress scanner based on the magnetoanisotropic method. The magnitude of the DPMS is fixed when a magnetic field is induced on a carbon steel plate under uniaxial tension. A direct proportional relationship is shown between the magnitude of the DPMS signal recorded by the scanner and the magnitude of tensile stresses in the plate in the region of elastic deformation of steel. Measurement of the DPMS signal in the central part of similar plates previously subjected to elastic-plastic bending showed that positive values of the signal are fixed in the surface layers of the metal on the inside of the plate, which corresponds to tensile residual stresses, while the negative ones concentrate at the external surface, which corresponds to compressive stresses. A transverse incision on a curved plate from the inside leads to a decrease in the value of the signal of the DPMS, which indicates a decrease in the level of residual stresses in the metal. The values of the DPMS signal in the central part of the curved plate, recalculated using the established calibration dependence on the value of the residual stresses, were compared with the values of the stresses established by calculation, based on the Henki’s theorem on the unloading of an elastic-plastic body. A satisfactory convergence was obtained between the experimental and calculated data.