A thin polycrystalline film bonded tightly to a thick substrate of different thermal expansion coefficients will experience thermal strain when the temperature is changed. Calculations of the strain energies for grains having various crystallographic orientations (h k l) relative to the film surface were made for a polycrystalline film composed of the close-packed hexagonal (HCP) metal Be, Cd, Co, Hf, Mg, Re, Ru, Sc, Ti, Y, Zr and Zn, respectively. From strain energy minimization, the (0 0 1), (0 1 3), (0 4 5), (1 2 3), (2 5 8), (0 5 7), (0 3 5), (0 5 7), (0 10), (5 5 8), (1 4 7) and (0 0 1) textures should be favorable in Be, Cd, Co, Hf, Mg, Re, Ru, Sc, Ti, Y, Zr and Zn film, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.