A new direct biaxial testing machine for anisotropic materials

A screw-driven new biaxial testing machine for the realization of experimental investigations on anisotropic sheet materials, such as composite plates or rolled sheet metals, is presented. The described mechanical concept and servocontrol system allow cruciform specimens to be subjected to large strain biaxial tensile and compressive tests without kinematic incompatibilities. Moreover, for the proper implementation of biaxial tensile tests, the specific problems linked to the anisotropic properties of the investigated materials are taken into account; therefore, for the first time, the biaxial machine is supplied with the original ‘off-axes testing device,’ consisting of hinged fixtures with knife-edges at each arm of the cruciform specimen. A recently developed optimization method for the optimal design of flat tensile cruciform specimens is shortly reviewed. Numerical simulations illustrate the decisive superiority of the optimized specimen compared with specimen designs proposed in the literature, as well as the necessity to use the ‘off-axes’ testing technique in biaxial tests on anisotropic materials.     

功能材料双轴拉伸十字板试件的优化设计

在对Demmerle和Boehler提出的一个基于试件实验区应力标准差的数学判据进行修正的基础上,将这一判据应用于有限元方法中,通过 ABAQUS有限元软件计算出试件实验区的应力分布,结合Powell优化设计方法,实现了对各向同性形状记忆合金材料双轴拉伸十字板试件的最优化设计.优化设计所得试件的应力位移分布图与原有的Kelly试件迸行了比较,结果表明经过优化的试件在满足双轴试验要求方面有了明显的改进.同时验证了在各向同性材料下优化所得的试件同样适用于各向异性材料.最后,对形状记忆合金相变过程在试验区中引起的应力应变变化进行了数值模拟,其结果表明优化试件完全能够满足记忆合金材料双轴实验的要求.     

Influence of Specimen Geometry on the Estimation of the Planar Biaxial Mechanical Properties of Cruciform Specimens

It is in general challenging to characterize planar mechanical properties of extremely soft tissues such as cell-seeded collagen gels. One of the difficulties is related to premature failure of specimens. This issue may be resolved by employing fillets on stress-concentrated spots of the specimen. The existence of fillets, however, complicates the estimation of stress at the center of the specimen where stiffness data are collected. In this study, cruciform rubber specimens with two types of fillets (general vs. cut-in fillets) at the intersections of perpendicular arms were prepared and subjected to planar biaxial mechanical testing, aiming at investigating how the fillets affect the estimation of mechanical properties of cruciform specimens. Digital image correlation was used to analyze full-field deformation in the central region of the specimens. Finite element analysis with a Neo-Hookean model was performed to simulate the full-field deformation under the same experimental boundary conditions. The strain distribution for each specimen geometry obtained by finite element analysis was found to be in good agreement with that analyzed by digital image correlation, validating the finite element models. Finite element simulation showed that the greatest value of the maximum principal strain decreased with increasing the fillet radius regardless of the fillet type. Increasing the fillet radius, in general, also reduced the strain field uniformity in the central region. Compared with general fillets, however, the use of cut-in fillets provided greater strain field uniformity given the same fillet radius. Finite element analysis was also used to estimate effective transverse length required to convert tensile force at the boundary to local stress at the center. It was found that the effective transverse length for each specimen geometry remained relatively constant if the specimen was not excessively deformed (i.e., global equibiaxial stretch ≤ 1.2). We suggest using cut-in fillets at the intersections of perpendicular arms when preparing cruciform specimens for testing extremely soft tissues.     

Design of a biaxial extensometer for measuring strains in cruciform specimens

A biaxial extensometer for measuring strains in flat cruciform specimens is presented. This extensometer allows for the use of two displacement or strain transducers to control and measure strains along mutually orthogonal directions in the plane of the specimen. The measurement and control of strains along each direction are completely independent of each other. The resolution and the measurable strain range of the biaxial extensometer depend on the particular displacement transducers employed. Independently adjustable gage lengths are incorporated along the two directions such that different strain ranges can be measured with the same transducer displacement range. The use of the biaxial extensometer with cruciform specimens and other applications, including the possibility for measuring triaxial strains in a plate specimen, are discussed.     

滑轨导向式静/动态双轴拉伸实验技术

基于液压伺服高速加载系统,发展了一种材料双轴拉伸力学性能测试技术。利用锥面接触导向驱动方法,把加载锤竖直方向的驱动力转化为水平方向的双轴驱动力,从而实现对十字形试样平面双轴加载。借助有限元数值模拟手段优化了锥面接触角和十字形试样尺寸。当接触锥角为45°时,既有较好的水平驱动转化效率,同时又保持较小的接触力,确保水平驱动加载各组件在弹性变形范围内,可多次重复使用。确定了加载臂狭缝个数、狭缝与减薄区边缘长度和标距段厚度等试样设计关键参数,在十字形试样测试标距段内实现了均匀变形。设计了测力夹持一体化导杆和非接触光学全场应变测试系统,准确获得了试样的应力和应变。利用此平面双轴拉伸加载装置,开展2024-T351铝合金板单轴拉伸实验和激光探测同步性验证实验,验证装置设计的可行性;开展铝合金板材在不同加载速率下的双轴拉伸实验,得到在双轴加载下铝合金板材应力应变曲线,并与单轴加载下实验结果进行了对比分析。     

Disk-shaped compact tension test for asphalt concrete fracture

A disk-shaped compact tension (DC(T)) test has been developed as a practical method for obtaining the fracture energy of asphalt concrete. The main purpose of the development of this specimen geometry is the ability to test cylindrical cores obtained from in-place asphalt concrete pavements or gyratory-compacted specimens fabricated during the mixture design process. A suitable specimen geometry was developed using the ASTM E399 standard for compact tension testing of metals as a starting point. After finalizing the specimen geometry, a typical asphalt concrete surface mixture was tested at various temperatures and loading rates to evaluate the proposed DC(T) configuration. The variability of the fracture energy obtained from the DC(T) geometry was found to be comparable with the variability associated with other fracture tests for asphalt concrete. The ability of the test to detect changes in the fracture energy with the various testing conditions (temperature and loading rate) was the benchmark for determining the potential of using the DC(T) geometry. The test has the capability to capture the transition of asphalt concrete from a brittle material at low temperatures to a more ductile material at higher temperatures. Because testing was conducted on ungrooved specimens, special care was taken to quantify deviations of the crack path from the pure mode I crack path. An analysis of variance of test data revealed that the prototype DC(T) can detect statistical differences in fracture energy resulting for tests conducted across a useful range of test temperatures and loading rates. This specific analysis also indicated that fracture energy is not correlated to crack deviation angle. This paper also provides an overview of ongoing work integrating experimental results and observations with numerical analysis by means of a cohesive zone model tailored for asphalt concrete fracture behavior.     

1Cr18Ni9Ti不锈钢的非比例循环强化性能

对1Cr18Ni9Ti不锈钢进行了各种比例和非比例循环本构实验,其中包括圆路径、正方形、正菱形、蝶形、三角形和两种十字形应变路径。表明其具有明显的非比例循环附加强化。在相同的等效应变幅值上,材料的附加强化与路径密切相关。对于圆路径,其附加强化度最大可达60％。通过对不同应变历史的实验研究表明,先前小的非比例度的加载历史对后继大的非比例度路径的强化没有影响;而先前大非比例度的加载路径对后继小非比例度路径的循环强化有较大影响。     

New development of the magnetic method for residual stress testing

Experiments on specimens of mild steel and cast iron have been performed under various loading conditions. A modified formula is pur forward to analyze the cruciform specimen which is often used in magnetic methods for calibration. We assume that the relationship between the magnetic output and strain is linear and a new four-coefficient method is deduced. Finally, the results of practical applications are given.     

Mixed numerical–experimental technique for orthotropic parameter identification using biaxial tensile tests on cruciform specimens

This paper presents a mixed numerical–experimental method for the identification of the four in-plane orthotropic engineering constants of composite plate materials. A biaxial tensile test is performed on a cruciform test specimen. The heterogeneous displacement field is observed by a CCD camera and measured by a digital image correlation (DIC) technique. The measured displacement field and the subsequently computed strain field are compared with a finite element simulation of the same experiment. The four independent engineering constants are unknown parameters in the finite element model. Starting from an initial value, these parameters are updated till the computed strain field matches the experimental strain field. Two specimen geometries are used: one with a centered hole to increase the strain heterogeneity and one without a hole. It is found that the non-perforated specimen yields the most accurate results.     

Determination of Yield Surfaces in Accordance With ISO 16842 Using an Optimized Cruciform Test Specimen

Background: For the standard ISO 16842 cruciform test specimen, stresses obtained from the gauge area are far below the ultimate tensile strength due to high stress concentrations at the slit ends which lead to premature failure. Objective: To introduce a new cruciform specimen design which has been optimized with respect to the determination of yield surfaces. Methods: The proposed design differs from the ISO standard by an additional thinning of the gauge area and wider slits in the arms to avoid stress singularities. Compared to other cruciform test piece designs found in the literature, the stress distribution is still homogeneous and there is no need to reduce the size of the gauge area, thanks to the specimen’s well-balanced proportions. Results: Biaxial tensile tests have been conducted with aluminium 5754 alloy samples of different thicknesses. For the standard cruciform test piece, the maximum strain achieved at the gauge area is only 25% of the fracture strain. The optimized cruciform test piece can attain about 66% of the fracture strain before breaking. Conclusions: The optimized specimen design enables the measurement of yield surfaces at higher stress levels. In case of other materials such as elastomers, the slit length has be to adjusted accordingly.

     

A new fracture-toughness test method for thick-walled cylinder material

A new method for measuring the plane-strain fracture toughness of the material from a thick-walled cylinder is presented. This method utilizes a notched, “C”-shaped test specimen, pin loaded in tension. This specimen has the advantage of most efficiently utilizing the available material to obtain the maximum possible triaxial constraint at the crack tip. Stress-intensity-factor calibrations for this specimen were obtained by two independent experiments. These are a compliance test, as originally proposed by Irwin, and a fatigue-crack-growth test, as suggested by James and Anderson. Very good agreement was obtained between the results of these two experiments. A stress-intensity calibration for a similar geometry was also obtained using a finite-element analysis and a method developed by Kobayashi to determine stress-intensity factors from finite-element results. The results of this method appear to be low by about 10 percent. Comparative fracture-toughness tests of material from a 2-in.-thick plate of special aircraft quality, 4340 steel, were conducted using the proposed new test method and the ASTM standard bend specimen. These results agreed within 2 percent.     

Identification of Mechanical Material Behavior Through Inverse Modeling and DIC

Inverse methods offer a powerful tool for the identification of the elasto-plastic material parameters. One of the advantages with respect to classical material testing is the fact that those inverse methods are able to deal with heterogeneous deformation fields. The basic principle of the inverse method that is presented in this paper, is the comparison between experimentally measured strain fields and those computed by the finite element (FE) method. The unknown material parameters in the FE model are iteratively tuned so as to match the experimentally measured and the numerically computed strain fields as closely as possible. This paper describes the application of an inverse method for the identification of the hardening behavior and the yield locus of DC06 steel, based on a biaxial tensile test on a perforated cruciform specimen. The hardening behavior is described by a Swift type hardening law and the yield locus is modeled with a Hill 1948 yield surface.     

Experimental study of the plastic yielding of rolled sheet metals with the cruciform plate specimen

In the current paper, an experimental technique for the evaluation of the in-plane yield loci of sheet metals with the cruciform plate specimen is presented. The measurement system is shown to conform to the optimized design concept proposed by other researchers. Finite element analysis demonstrates a reasonably wide area of uniform stress distribution in the center of the cruciform specimen, which allows the measurement of in-plane strain field by using a stacked strain rosette. Based on the designed apparatus, the yield loci of the 1100-F aluminum sheets corresponding to the as-received condition, and 25% and 50% thickness reductions by further rolling, were constructed, respectively, by applying biaxial loadings along the two principal axes of the cruciform specimen. A set of uniaxial tension tests were also performed to determine the plastic properties of the aluminum sheet along different directions with respect to the rolling direction. Finally, Hill's 1990 yield criterion is examined based on the experimental data from both biaxial and uniaxial tension tests.     

Novel Design of Cruciform Specimens for Planar Biaxial Testing of Soft Materials

Cruciform specimens have long been used in planar biaxial testing of inanimate materials such as metals and composite materials. The efforts to improve the geometric design of cruciform specimens have focused on maximizing the degree of uniformity of stress and strain in the gage section. The standardization of the procedure for the determination of the mean stress in the gage section is lacking, however, because the exact load transferred from the grippers to the gage section during testing is unknown. Here, we introduce a novel split-arm design for cruciform specimens by taking into account three important factors: i) the effectiveness of load transfer from the grippers to the gage section, ii) the uniformity of normal stress (in the loading direction) over the symmetry line, and iii) the compatibility between the nominal stress and the true stress. By ensuring these conditions, one can estimate more accurately the mean stress in the gage section based on the measured force at the grippers and the deformed configuration of a reference length. A genetic algorithm coupled with finite element analysis was utilized to optimize the geometric shape of the novel cruciform design. The identified optimum design provides a load transfer effectiveness of 100 %. The calculated nominal stress deviates from the true stress at the center of the specimen by only ?0.49 %. A numerical experiment was conducted to validate the substantially improved performance of the optimized new design. Experiments were also conducted for natural latex rubber to demonstrate the application of the proposed design.     

Properties of rocks tested in one-dimensional compression

An apparatus has been developed and used to obtain static stress-strain data on rock and soil samples in one-dimensional compression. This paper describes the design and method of use, and reports test results obtained on several types of rock and sand specimens. A 4-in.-diam specimen with height up to 2 in. is contained in a thin-walled steel cylinder. This cylinder is contained in the main pressure vessel which has a pressure cavity surrounding the specimen. Load is applied through a load cell on top of the specimen by a hydraulic press. An operator maintains a constant zero balance on strain gages bonded to the thin, steel cylinder containing the specimen by pumping hydraulic fluid into the pressure cavity, thus nullifying the tendency of the test specimen to expand laterally as it is compressed axially. Axial load and deflection are recorded on anx?y plotter from signals received from the load cell and a deflectometer mounted on the load cell. This apparatus has been successfully used to obtain data on rocks to axial stresses of 75,000 psi and on sand to 30,000 psi. Test data for both rocks and sand are presented in this paper.     

An experimental investigation of losipescu specimen for composite materials

A detailed experimental evaluation of the losipescu specimen tested in the modified Wyoming fixture is presented. Moiré interferometry is employed to determine the deformation of unidirectional and cross-ply graphite-epoxy specimens. The results of the moiré experiments are compared to those from the traditional strain-gage method. It is shown that the strain-gage readings from one surface of a specimen together with corresponding data from moiré interferometry on the opposite face documented an extreme sensitivity of some fiber orientations to twisting. A localized hybrid analysis is introduced to perform efficient reduction of moiré data, producing whole-field strain distributions in the specimen test sections.     

Torsion test of aluminum in the large strain range

A series of experiments was conducted on cast and extruded high purity aluminum material under monotonic large strain torsion condition. Both free-end and fixed-end torsions were studied using tubular specimens of different gage lengths (long, medium and short). The experiments used an axial–torsional extensometer. A procedure of calibration for elevated temperature test was determined. The torque versus angle of twist curves were recorded and converted into true shear stress–strain curves by use of the modified Nadai method developed previously by the authors. The axial extension for free-end torsion and the axial stress developed during fixed-end torsion were recorded. The hoop strain was also measured and was found to be approximately 0.8–0.9 times the axial strain when the shear strain is 150%. The effect of specimen geometry was studied. It was found that the long, thick-walled tubular specimen is suitable for torsion test in the large strain range.     

Modeling single crystals: time integration,tangent operators,sensitivity analysis and shape optimization

In this paper, a comprehensive overview of the numerical analysis of single crystalline materials at high temperatures is presented, including implicit higher order time integration, consistent linearization and respective sensitivity analysis. Both a phenomenological and a crystallographic model are employed to simulate the mechanical isothermal behavior of the nickel-based superalloy CMSX-4 at 950°C in a finite element environment. A shape optimization methodology for testing specimen design based on extensive finite element computations is presented. The sensitivity analysis according to the chosen time integration scheme is performed leading to an algorithm for simultaneous analysis and design (SAND). Examples for the shape optimization of a cruciform specimen for biaxial tensile experiments at high temperatures are given and discussed in detail.     

Tensile Test Machine for Unsymmetrical Materials

A novel solution to overcome the shortcoming of conventional tensile test machines in dealing with unsymmetrical materials and off-axis testing of composites is presented. Conventional testing machines are designed on the basis of subjecting a specimen to axial load to determine the stiffness and strength of the material. For specimens with unsymmetrical cross-section this method is no longer valid due to induced additional bending stresses. To overcome this problem a novel tensile test machine was designed, which allows bending deformation, thus subjecting the specimen to pure tension instead of axial loading. To validate the design, the machine was fabricated and employed for tensile testing of an aluminum specimen with unsymmetrical cross-section. The comparison of test results from a conventional machine and from analytically calculations, based on pure tension, reveals that conventional machine generates significant errors, while the results from new machine are in good agreement. The machine was then used to test a functionally graded beam.