In the measurement of residual stresses in hardened carbon steels by X-ray diffraction the principal difficulty encountered is determining the precise location of the broad diffraction lines. Christenson and RowlandM have proposed a workable technique, but it entails a complicated correction calculation. A simplified correction procedure, based on theoretical considerations, will be described which shortens the time required to obtain accurate data and cuts the time required for calculation to a fraction of that required for the previous method.

It can be shown that the asymmetry of the broad diffraction lines in the back reflection region is largely due to 6 dependent intensity factors. Thus, the proposed correction procedure uses a multiplicative correction to peak intensity which includes all significant geometrical and absorption factors. The line position is then determined accurately as the axis of a parabola fitted to the corrected data. Since the data is taken in the vicinity of the peak, the time required to obtain accurate data is reduced and furthermore it is possible to determine residual stresses in as-quenched steel even though the structure is tetragonal.

Examples of the type of stresses measured and the correlation between this new method and that of Christenson and Rowland will be presented.