Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2013
Internal elastic strain (i.e., residual stress) and the diffracted X-ray intensity variation over several orientations of crystallites with respect to the specimen surface were investigated as a means of differentiating two qualities of polycrystalline nickel plating. A unique instrument based upon a position-sensitive scintillation X-ray detector was used to apply all of the techniques commonly applied to X-ray stress analysis in this investigation. It was concluded that residual stress measurements did not provide a clear distinction between the two specimens, but comparison of the relative intensities diffracted from crystallographic planes at certain orientations with the surface did provide a distinction.