Small Punch Testing

Engineering materials are typically tested in a uniaxial state of stress as the tests are straightforward; however, many materials exhibit different behavior when loaded under different states of stress.  It is therefore important to perform tests beyond the standard uniaxial tension or compression tests to capture fully a material’s response.  Biaxial loading is one such state of stress that may be encountered as a component bulges due to internal pressure, for instance.

The small punch fixture, shown here, is designed to characterize a material’s behavior under biaxial stress and is based on ASTM F2183.  A punch with a 2.54 mm diameter spherical tip is pressed into a clamped thin cylindrical specimen.  Punch load and displacement are measured until specimen failure.  The results from this test are typically used to characterize the biaxial stress-strain response of a material and to validate a material model developed solely with uniaxial data.

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