From the bottom up – measuring bulk mechanical properties via microtechnology

Abstract

The micromechanics community has developed a large set of tools for measuring the properties of microand nano-scaled materials. These new tools have been successfully applied to a range of materials, most often in thin-film form, to determine the critical length scales below which bulk properties no longer describe the behaviour of materials, and to understand the underlying mechanisms behind the divergent behaviour. These tools, essential for the characterization of smallscale materials, have recently been applied in a new strategy to evaluate the mechanical properties of bulk materials through microsized testing in situations where conventional testing is challenging such as in extreme or harsh environments (e.g., temperature extremes, radiation exposure, corrosive chemistries, etc.). In this work, the initial results from a microtechnology-based tensile technique developed for the evaluation of bulk materials properties via microscale test specimens sectioned from bulk materials are described.