Mesoscopic residual stresses of plastic origin in zirconium: interpretation of X-ray diffraction results

Complementary methods have been used to analyse residual stresses in a heat-treated Zr702 sheet which had undergone uniaxial plastic deformation: X-ray diffraction and self-consistent models. The elastoplastic self-consistent model has been used to simulate the experiments and exhibits agreement with experimental data. X-ray diffraction analysis in the rolling direction shows opposite stress values for {} and {} planes, respectively. The measured strains were generated by an anisotropic plastic deformation. The comparison between [epsilon]_ϕψ versus sin²ψ and simulations confirms that prismatic slip is the main active deformation mode. Plastic incompatibility stress in X-ray measurements should be taken into account in order to make a correct interpretation of the experimental data.