Development of intergranular thermal residual stresses in beryllium during cooling from processing temperatures

The intergranular thermal residual stresses in texture-free solid polycrystalline beryllium were determined by comparison of crystallographic lattice parameters in solid and powder samples measured by neutron diffraction during cooling from 800 °C. The internal stresses are not significantly different from zero >575 °C and increase nearly linearly <525 °C. At room temperature, the c axis of an average grain is under ∼200 MPa of compressive internal stress, and the a axis is under 100 MPa of tensile stress. For comparison, the stresses have also been calculated using an Eshelby-type polycrystalline model. The measurements and calculations agree very well when temperature dependence of elastic constants is accounted for, and no plastic relaxation is allowed in the model.