A method of ultrasonic control of the mechanical stresses which takes into account the heterogeneity of the material structure and does not require unloading of the structure or using reference samples is considered. The procedure is based on echo-method of measuring time of the bulk elastic wave propagation and determination of the relative values ν31 and ν32 related to the material structure and mechanical stresses. It is shown that stresses violate the linearity of the relationship observed between the parameters in the absence of the mechanical stresses in the rolled material. This effect formed a basis for developing a method of the deviator stress determination. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the main advantages of the developed method against the known ultrasonic techniques used for evaluation of the mechanical stresses, give theoretical grounds to the effect which allows taking into account the heterogeneity of the material structure, and also to exemplify the procedure. An analytical expression is derived using bulk elastic wave velocity in an orthotropic material composed of cubic crystallites and an assumption on the existence of simple proportional relationship between the coefficients of the orientation distribution function in rolled metal. Presented results of the mathematical modeling confirm the experimentally observed linear dependence between the parameters ν31 and ν32 in the absence of mechanical stresses. The results of evaluating residual stresses in a welded steel plate are presented as an example of the applicability of the developed procedure. Data of ultrasonic technique and data of strain gage measurements are compared. The features of the described method of stress determination are marked and the applicability limits are specified.
