Kowari - OPAL's new stress diffractometer for the engineering community: capabilities and first results

Abstract

Kowari is a neutron diffractometer at ANSTO’s research reactor OPAL. The instrument is dedicated to investigate residual strains and stresses in engineering samples or new materials. Besides its usage in engineering/strain-scanning it is more and more frequently being used for obtaining texture information related to materials science applications. In particular the possibility of using the gauge volume defining slit systems allows extracting local information from the diffraction peak, i.e. position, intensity, and width, without the need to cut the sample specimen. The instrument obtained its operating license in August 2008 to briefly describe the instruments parameters and capabilities, and give examples of two typical applications since it went from commissioning into user mode. © 2020 by Trans Tech Publications Ltd