The measurement and analysis of residual stresses has gained significant importance over the past couple of years due to the increasing demands in improving the properties of new engineering materials and components. The ability to measure these residual stresses accurately will thus lead to the manufacture of stronger, lighter, and cheaper components by industry. The drive to optimize material performance whilst minimizing component weight will ensure that this field continues to grow. Experimentally, non-destructive analysis of phase-specific residual stresses is only possible by means of diffraction methods. While X-ray scattering is essentially a surface method, the high penetration depth of neutrons into the bulk material (e.g., 20 mm into steel or 100 mm into aluminium) allows extracting reliable information from the inside of components.

Anisotropic behavior is a key characteristic for understanding eccentricity in tubes. In this paper, the effect of using a tilted die during tube drawing on eccentricity, texture, dislocation density, and mechanical properties is shown. Copper tubes were drawn with a ±5° tilted die for two passes. The increase or decrease in eccentricity can be controlled by controlling the angle of the tilted die. Two types of textures have been developed during tube drawing, namely plane strain and uniaxial types. Plain strain type texture is mainly characterized by the β fiber with a dominant copper component {112}. The uniaxial deformation type is dominated by the fiber, as commonly found by wire drawing. Texture sharpness increases with increasing drawing strain, and the texture varies significantly between the maximum and minimum wall thickness. This texture variation between maximum and minimum wall thickness has no significant influence on mechanical properties, which are more or less similar, but the increase in strength after each drawing pass is apparent. The dislocation density is low for the as-received tubes due to recovery and recrystallization. This is consistent with the as-received texture dominated by the cube component {001}. During tube drawing, dislocation density increases as a function of the deformation strain. The variation of dislocation density between the maximum and minimum wall thickness in the tube deformed with −5° tilted die is higher than the variation in the tube deformed with +5° tilted die.

To explore the effect of neodymium (Nd) on the deformation mechanisms of Mg–Zn alloys, texture and lattice strain developments of hot-rolled Mg–Zn (Z1) and Mg–Zn–Nd (ZN10) alloys were investigated using in situ synchrotron diffraction and compared with elasto-viscoplastic self-consistent simulation under tensile loading. The Nd-containing ZN10 alloys show much weaker texture after hot rolling than the Nd-free Z1 alloy. To investigate the influence of the initial texture on the texture and lattice strain evolution, the tensile tests were carried out in the rolling and transverse direction. During tension, the {002} texture components develop fast in Z1, which was not seen for ZN10. On the other hand, fiber // loading direction (LD) developed in both alloys, although it was faster in ZN10 than in Z1. Lattice strain investigation showed that // LD-oriented grains experienced plastic deformation first during tension, which can be related to basal slip activity. This was more apparent for ZN10 than for Z1. The simulation results show that the prismatic slip plays a vital role in the plastic deformation of Z1 directly from the beginning. In contrast, ZN10 plastic deformation starts with dominant basal slip but during deformation prismatic slip becomes increasingly important.

Debye–Scherrer patterns, obtained from X-ray diffraction experiments using synchrotron light in transmission geometry, were analysed to construct generalized pole figures, and further used as input for an orientation distribution function inversion algorithm. By using Langford's method for separating strain and size contributions to peak broadening, it was possible, for the first time, to obtain full domain size and dislocation density generalized distribution functions (GDFs). This method was applied to cold-rolled and annealed interstitial-free steel. The predictions made using GDFs were corroborated by electron backscatter diffraction measurements and were also consistent with what was previously known for this kind of material under these conditions.