Kowari – OPAL’s Residual-Stress Diffractometer and its Application to Materials Science and Engineering

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has recently started commissioning the new Australian Research Reactor OPAL that has replaced the old HIFAR reactor in January 2007. At the first stage, the new reactor will provide neutrons to several neutron scattering instruments. Among them is the residual stress diffractometer Kowari that was designed to study engineering problems related to residual stresses as well as allow material science research using neutron diffraction. We give an update on the progress of the instrument’s installation and commissioning and present an example to illustrate how neutron diffraction can be used to obtain information about residual stresses in a flash butt welded plate.