Stress determination in textured polycrystals using ultrasonic technique

The well-known method of stress determination in macroscopically isotropic polycrystals using ultrasonic birefringence is generalized for application to textured materials. The technique is based upon recently published theoretical work on wave propagation in polycrystals which allows the determination of texture from directional sound velocities and scattering coefficients. The effects of stress and texture on the ultrasonic propagation constants are separated exploiting the fact that contrary to stress texture causes frequency dependent birefringence. Experimental results are in general agreement with the theoretical data.