More Information on The Contour Method

For more information on the contour method, email Mike Prime. I'm glad to try to answer questions on implementing the method, licensing the method, or having measurements performed.

Where to start if you want to learn the contour method? I recommend four articles to start:

1. The Contour Method, Michael B. Prime and Adrian T. DeWald, 2013, in Practical Residual Stress Measurement Methods, Gary S. Schajer, Editor, pp. 109-138.
2. Hosseinzadeh, F., Kowal, J., and Bouchard, P. J., 2014, "Towards good practice guidelines for the contour method of residual stress measurement," The Journal of Engineering.
3. The dissertation from Johnson gives a good introduction and and good collection of details on data processing in Chapters 3&4.
4. The 2001 report from DeWald and Hill has lots of practical information and some MATLAB scripts. The analysis of the data took a lot of work because the cut (that I gave them) was very poor, which may be helpful for some readers.

Other contour method practitioners and information:

• Hill Engineering is now licensed to perform contour method measurements.
• Stressmap in the UK is now providing measurement services with the contour method.
• Veqter in the UK also is now providing measurement services with the contour method.

The First, and Nearly Last, Contour Method Measurement, YouTube video, seminar given at Hill Engineering on 1 September 2017 for the dedication of the Prime Room.

Los Alamos Residual Stress Links:

• Mike Prime's Web Page
• A listing of Residual stress conferences
• The Crack Compliance Method
• SMARTS - a LANL instrument for neutron diffraction measurements

Managed by Triad National Security, LLC Los Alamos National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's NNSA
contact: Mike Prime at prime@lanl.gov | Copyright & Disclaimer
U.S. patent 6,470,756 | Last Modified: January 24, 2020