Effect of the Surface Layer Strained by Mechanical Grinding on X-ray Diffraction Analysis

X-ray diffraction is a powerful tool for characterizing the microstructure of steels. However, the strained surface by mechanical grinding could cause some errors in X-ray diffraction analysis. In this work, the strained layer was found to affect peak intensity, peak positions and enlarge the full width at half maximum. A quantitative relation between the depth of damaged layer and particle size of sander papers was established.