X-ray diffraction was used to determine the thermal residual stresses that develop in a functionally graded WC–Co composite. Stresses were measured in both WC and Co phases at various depths. Pole figures were obtained in order to determine optimal sample orientations that provided adequate intensity for measurements in the Co phase. For WC, the in-plane compressive residual stresses varied approximately between −300 and −500 MPa with depth below the surface. For the low volume fraction Co phase, the tensile residual stresses were approximately 600 MPa. The microstresses in the graded zone were attributed to the thermal mismatch between the WC and the Co phase during cooling from the liquid phase sintering temperature (1450 °C). The microstresses determined were in reasonable agreement with a prediction using Eshelby theory. The compressive macrostresses were attributed to the compositional gradient, a result further substantiated by the fact that no significant macrostresses were measured in a comparable homogeneous sample, i.e., without the compositional gradient. Thus, varying compositional gradients in WC–Co composites during fabrication can be expected to directly influence the macrostress component of the overall residual stress state.

Micro- and nanoindentation were used to determine hardness as a function of depth in two functionally graded WC–Co composites. The gradients were continuous (extended over ∼70 and ∼40 μm, respectively) and consisted of varying WC and Co phase volume fractions. Five comparable homogeneous samples with different Co contents and different average WC grain sizes were also used for direct comparison. A relationship between hardness and Co content was established for both the graded and the homogeneous samples wherein the hardness decreased with increasing Co content. The magnitude of the hardness was the same (for a given Co content) for the functionally graded and the homogeneous materials. The hardness measurements were also correlated with X-ray diffraction studies of thermal residual stresses and the absence of any major influence explained. It is generally concluded that the hardness values are dominated by the local Co content. Additionally, the examination of surface cracks around indents suggests that compositional gradients in WC–Co composites offer increased toughness.

An experimental and simulation study of residual stresses was made in the vicinity of a gas tungsten arc weld, used to join a hemispherical end cap to a cylinder. The capped cylinder is used in a satellite application and was fabricated from a Co-based Haynes^® 25 alloy. The cylinder was 34.7 mm in outer diameter and 3.3 mm in thickness. The experimental measurements were made by neutron diffraction and the simulation used the implicit Marc finite element code. The experimental resolution was limited to approximately 3 mm parallel to the axis of the cylinder (the weld was 6 mm in the same direction) and comparison over the same volume of the finite element prediction showed general agreement. Subject to the limited spatial resolution, the largest experimentally measured tensile residual stress was 180 MPa, located at the middle of the weld. However, the predictions suggest that there are regions in the weld where average tensile residual stresses as much as 400 MPa exist. One qualitative disparity between the model and the experiments was that the measurement included a larger degree of asymmetry on either side of the weld than predicted by the model.

Strain pole figures representative of residual intergranular strains were determined from an −2.98% uniaxially compressed austenitic stainless steel sample. The measurements were made using neutron diffraction on the recently commissioned Spectrometer for Materials Research at Temperature and Stress (SMARTS) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA. The measurements were compared with predictions from an elasto-plastic self-consistent model and found to be in good agreement.

Neutron diffraction was used to measure residual stresses in a powder metallurgical green body manufactured by high speed compaction of iron and 15 wt.% brass powders. The tests were performed with the aid of radial collimators configured to measure spatially resolved strains in the axial and radial directions in a cylindrical specimen. Compressive residual stresses were present in the iron phase and appear to be larger in the lower to middle sections along the specimen's axis. Furthermore, a combination of sharp (Berkovich) and spherical (Hertzian) indenters were used for instrumented indentation experiments. The results from the spherical indenter were used to determine the elastic modulus, while results from the sharp indenter were used to measure the hardness.