Investigation of material removal techniques for residual stress profile determination on induction hardened steel

Sammanfattning: The residual stress profile is a major factor on the fatigue life of components that are subjected to cyclic loading. In order to measure these stresses x-ray diffraction (XRD) is commonly used. The penetration depth of x-rays is limited for this method and thus, it must be combined with material removal to determine in-depth stress profiles.At SKF Manufacturing Development Center (SKF MDC), where the work for this thesis was carried out, the current layer removal method is restricted to a depth of 0.5 mm. Consequently, an additional method of material removal is necessary to obtain information at greater depths. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate possible material removal techniques that can be implemented with XRD measurements. Two different material removal techniques were studied; electrochemical etching and milling in combination with electrochemical etching. The electrochemical etching equipment was developed at SKF MDC prior to this thesis but needed further testing and validation. The residual stress profiles of induction hardened cylinders were studied using the two different removal techniques combined with XRD measurements and the results were compared with stresses measured by Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI) with hole drilling. In addition, the results were compared with simulations performed at SKF MDC India. It was concluded that both the material removal methods could be successfully combined with XRD measurements. However, for practical reasons the methods should be refined before being implemented on a regular basis. Unfortunately, poor correlation between XRD and ESPI measurements were obtained due to reasons not fully understood.