With the development of modern synchrotron sources, high-energy X-ray diffraction plays an important role in the residual stresses analysis of materials. This paper deals with the development of a new high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction (HESXRD) stress evaluation method for improving the near-surface strain measurement. For this purpose a new Monte Carlo simulation program has been developed to modelize any synchrotron radiation instrument. Futhermore conventional X-ray diffraction measurements have also been carried out after chemical etching, to define the surface and in-depth stresses of the sample, thus giving a reference to test the synchrotron radiation measurements. It has been shown that the reliability of this method is better than 5 mu m. This method has been applied to a machined palladium alloy (Pd-Ag-Sn) plate substrate. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.