Identification of mechanical characteristics of materials using diminutive specimen-an empirical study

Abstract

Small punch test technique on circular shape of diminutive specimen is considered in the present study. The small punch tests are conducted on diminutive specimen of circular shaped. Four different steels are chosen for this purpose. The load on diminutive samples is quasi-statically applied using different tip diameters hemispherical headed indenter. The experimental outputs of small punch (SP) test on diminutive specimen are obtained in the form breakaway loads, load vs. displacement curve/data and reduced thickness of tested diminutive samples is measured at failure. The resulted SP experimental data are analyzed used to establish the empirical relations to predict the mechanical behaviour of materials. For this purpose, the empirical correlations are proposed for the estimation of the yield stress ductility (fracture strain) and fracture toughness and are used to predict the behaviour of four different materials under study. The standard tensile and fracture toughness tests are also carried out for comparison. The small punch test on diminutive specimen is demonstrating the strong potential for the determination of mechanical behaviour.