Refinement of stress and strain tensors from multielement energy dispersive detectors

The use of a new multi-element detector has opened up a significant avenue of research possibilities in the stress-strain community. Measurements of strain in many independent azimuthal directions allow the determination of the in-plane strain (stress) tensor in a single measurement. Furthermore, the uncertainties extracted from the fitting of the tensor components seem to be better estimates of the real experimental scatter than those propagated through from the spectra fitting alone. It is clear that calibration is of critical importance but is time consuming and difficult. A semi-automated approach has been developed to assist users in this process. The technique is proven using measurements on an aluminium friction stir weld and a titanium laser weld.