EDXRD setup for real time observation of a gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding process

Residual stresses in welds are of major concern for the structure integrity assessment in industrial components. The stresses in the final weld can be determined relatively simple using well established destructive or non-destructive techniques. However, such measurements reflect only the final condition and it remains unclear how stresses built up during the welding process. In order to optimise the final residual stresses in the weld, it is important to monitor the formation of residual strain and stress during the welding process and as such to gain insight into the mechanisms of stress development. In this work non-destructive high energy dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction at a high count rate is applied in order to dissolve the welding process in-situ in time and temperature. However, the achievable time resolution at commonly used instruments is restricted by either a limited photon flux or the read out electronics of the detector system resulting in counting times usually much longer than 1 sec. We present an energy dispersive detector and read-out-electronics setup realized at the high flux and energy beam line ID15A at the ESRF. The setup allowed for monitoring the strain evolution in two perpendicular directions simultaneously at a sampling rate of 5 Hz, resulting in sufficient time and temperature resolution. The change in detector dead time is accounted for by a correction function, which was specifically determined for the detector setup as used for this in-situ experiment.