The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of making in situ stress measurements of a tensile sample using neutron diffraction techniques. This study describes: 1) A tensile device for in situ application of uniaxial stress, and 2) A technique for determining the elastic component of strain in the elastic and elastic/ plastic regions for grains of specific crystallographic and physical orientation within a tensile sample under uniaxial load. Elastic constants of particular crystallographic planes were determined for 7079-T6 aluminum alloy, 17-7PH stainless steel, 17-4PH stainless steel, and Ti-6%A1-4%V. 7M0+ stainless steel, a material with two major phases (austenite and ferrite) was also studied to determine the load sharing characteristics of the individual phases. The elastic constants determined compare with previous X-ray studies but seem to have less scatter in the data, especially in the case of Ti-6%A1-4%V. No meaningful conclusions can be drawn in the two-phase experiments because of instrumental errors, but the data collection and analysis procedures were developed in the course of this study.Includes bibliographical references
