Stress-dependent second-order grain statistics of polycrystals

In this article, the second-order statistics of the elastic moduli of randomly oriented grains in a polycrystal are derived for the case when an initial stress is present. The initial stress can be either residual stress or stresses generated from external loading. The initial stress is shown to increase or decrease the variability of the grain’s elastic moduli from the average elastic moduli of the polycrystal. This variation in the elastic properties of the individual grains causes acoustic scattering phenomenon in polycrystalline materials to become stress-dependent. The influence of the initial stress on scattering is shown to be greater than the influence on acoustic phase velocities, which defines the acoustoelastic effect. This work helps the development of scattering based tools for the nondestructive analysis of material stresses in polycrystals