Neutron Stress Measurements in the 21st Century

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Krawitz, Aaron D.

Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Abstract: The end of the 20th century marks 20 years of neutron stress activity and seems a good time to survey the landscape with regard to facilities, instrumentation and software, outreach, science, problems, and the impact of synchrotrons. The number of neutron stress instruments, at reactor and pulsed sources, has grown (and is growing) substantially. Brief surveys of facilities and instrumentation and software are presented. Our considerable success in building instruments raises the issue of who will use them. Building a user community—outreach—may prove to be a bigger problem, particularly in the US. With regard to science, real time observations of changes due to thermal and/or mechanical treatment will become feasible at the new pulsed source instruments. At both the pulsed and newer reactor facilities, more substantial studies of anisotropic systems, effects that cause peak broadening, and measurements of general triaxial stress states are becoming possible. In all cases, smaller gage volumes are becoming a reality. The problem of determining stress-free reference values is more fully appreciated now but remains a challenge. Finally, the advent of the use of synchrotron radiation causes us to think more seriously about the best choice of radiation to use for diffraction stress measurements.

Keywords: Neutrons, Stress measurement, Synchrotron radiation

DOI: 10.1080/10238160108200133

Journal: Journal of Neutron Research, vol. 9, no. 2-4, pp. 119-127, 2001