The New Materials Science Diffractometer STRESS-SPEC at FRM-II

In response to the development of new materials and the application of materials and components in new technologies the direct measurement, calculation and evaluation of textures and residual stresses has gained worldwide significance in recent years. Non-destructive analysis for phase specific residual stresses and textures is only possible by means of diffraction methods. In order to cater for the development of these analytical techniques the new Materials Science Diffractometer STRESS-SPEC at FRM-II is designed to be equally applied to texture and residual stress analyses by virtue of its flexible configuration. The system compromises a highly flexible monochromator setup using three different monochromators: Ge (511), bent silicon (400) and pyrolitic graphite (PG). This range of monochromators and the possibility to vary the take-off angles from 2θM = 35º to 110º allows wavelength adjustment such that measurements can be performed around a scattering angle of 2θS ~ 90º. This is important in order to optimise neutron flux and resolution, especially for stress analysis on components, since the gauge volume element in that case is cubic and large vertical divergences due to focusing monochromators do not affect the spatial resolution. The instrument is now available for routine operation and here we will present details of recent experiments and instrument performance.