Validation of a synthetic bitmap for the development of residual stress assessment using thermoelastic stress analysis

Thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) is combined with finite element modelling to provide a novel means for residual stress assessment. Previous work has shown that TSA has the ability to measure the change in thermoelastic response when a material has undergone different levels of plastic strain. That work utilised a reference specimen that contained no plastic strain, in industry it will often be the case that a reference specimen does not exist. The present paper develops a synthetic bitmap that acts as an artificial reference specimen. This bitmap is compared to the TSA results for the physical reference specimen, and been used in place of the physical reference. In both instances, there is strong correlation between the results using the model reference and results using the physical reference.