Numerical and experimental determination of residual stresses in graded materials

When an FGM part is cooled down from its processing or heat treatment temperature to room remperature, residual stresses are generated in the composite due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the different materials. As the residual stresses may influence the performance of the part significantly, the efforts put into the development of theoretical models to predict these stresses are justified. The aim of the paper is to compare the theoretical results with those obtained from various experimental techniques using three different FGM systems, namely Cu-Ni, CrNi-ZrO2 and WC-Co, as examples. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Limited.