How Does Residual Stress Affect a Component?

The net sum of all residual stresses across any cross-section is always zero. However, across any cross-section of a component, there is typically a residual stress distribution. The residual stress distribution affects performance. It is this distribution that we characterize using XRD.

Residual stress affects the following processes:

• Low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue performance
  
• Distortion
• Peen forming (controlled distortion)
  
• Fretting
  
• Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC)
  
• Crack initiation and propagation (damage tolerance)

‍