New Achievements in Mechanical Methods for Residual Stress Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

When developing and designing technical components, it is now state of the art that manufacturing-induced residual stresses must be taken into account. Almost all manufacturing processes result in characteristic residual stress distributions, whereby these residual stresses, some of which act locally, can have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of materials and components, such as the fatigue properties, wear or corrosion properties. In the course of so-called ´stress engineering´, beneficial residual stresses are even intentionally introduced into areas that are considered to be relevant to damage during operation. On the other hand, residual stresses that are considered harmful, such as high tensile residual stresses in the area of weld seams, are specifically minimized by means of post-treatment processes in order to increase the service life of the welded construction. Hence, the reliable analysis of residual stress distributions is essential for component design. There exist numerous non-destructive, semi-destructive or destructive methods for residual stress analysis. A group that is becoming more and more important includes the mechanical methods, which are fundamentally based on the disturbance of the residual stress equilibrium through targeted material removal or through local material separation. In contrast to the diffraction methods, they are not limited to crystalline material and generally; they need less elaborate instrumentation. Well-established methods are, for example, the incremental hole drilling method, the ring coring method, the contour method, Sachs-boring, the crack-compliance (slitting) method, or simply layer removal methods. The acceptance of the procedures in engineering practice is strongly dependent on the applicability and on-disturbance variables that affect the reliability and the accuracy. Progress with regard to the acceptance of the various mechanical methods can be achieved if the boundary conditions for reliable application and evaluation can be expanded and if the result errors can be reliably quantified.

The upcoming Special Issue of Materials aims to present new developments in the field of residual stress analysis using mechanical methods. The primary objective of the Materials Special Issue is to present the latest achievements in methodical developments, which include instrumentation as well as measuring and evaluation strategies. We are pleased to invite you to submit research papers and reviews related to the latest achievements and developments in this field. All comments and suggestions for the Special Issue are welcome.

Dr. Jens Gibmeier
Guest Editor

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• residual stress
• mechanical techniques
• incremental hole drilling
• contour method
• strain field determination
• differential interference contrast
• optical strain analysis