Measurement of residual stress in engineering plastics using the hole-drilling technique

A comparative evaluation has been made of the effectiveness of the layer-removal and hole-drilling techniques for measurement of residual stress in polymeric materials. A quenched sheet of ABS containing equi-biaxial residual stresses was produced. Residual stresses in the polymer sheet determined from the layer-removal technique were found to be both equi-biaxial and repeatable. In contrast, residual stresses determined by hole-drilling were not equi-biaxial and did not balance through the thickness of the specimen. Although hole-drilling is a more flexible technique than layer-removal, the results obtained are not as reliable. Crown copyright (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.