Monitoring elastic strain and damage by neutron and synchrotron X-ray beams

Large scale neutron and synchrotron X-ray facilities have been providing im portant information for physicists and chemists for many decades. Increasin gly, materials engineers are finding that these facilities can also provide important information non-destructively. Highly penetrating neutron and X- ray synchrotron beams provide the materials engineer with a means of obtain ing information about the state of stress and damage deep within materials. The principles underlying the elastic strain measurement and damage charac terisation techniques are introduced. The capabilities of the methods are i llustrated through a number of practical applications including: mapping da mage and stress transfer fibre by fibre in continuous fibre reinforced comp osites during loading, measurement of residual stresses in welding, the use of measurements to refine finite element models, and creep cavitation crac king in power plant steels. MST/5087.