Design and Use of Nonstandard Tensile Specimens for Irradiated Materials Testing

Abstract

Miniature, nonstandard, tensile-type specimens have been developed for use in radiation effects experiments at high energy neutron sources where the useful radiation volume is as small as a few cubic centimeters. The end result of our development is a 12.7-mm-long sheet-type specimen, with a 5.1-mm-long, 1.0-mm-wide gage section, which is fabricated from 0.25-mm-thick sheet stock by a punching technique. Data obtained using miniature specimens of an austenitic, a ferritic and a precipitation hardened alloy are in good agreement with data obtained using much larger specimens. This finding indicates that miniature tensile specimen data may be used for engineering design purposes and that miniature tensile specimen technology may be applicable to fields other than the study of radiation effects. This paper reviews the miniature specimen technology which was developed and reports the data which were obtained.