Analysis of different techniques for obtaining pre-cracked/notched small punch test specimens

Effect of confinement level on mechanical behaviour using the small punch test

“…This test was developed in the nuclear industry in the eighties [1] and has since been used successfully on numerous occasions [2][3][4][5] in those cases where there is not enough material to carry out standard tests to obtain the mechanical properties of materials, such as in the case of welds or irradiated material. The SPT has also been used to estimate material fracture properties [6,7], and in recent years even pre-cracked [8] or pre-notched [9,10] specimens have been used. Some authors have used FEM ductile damage models to simulate specimen behaviour up to failure [11,12].…”

Development of a new methodology for estimating the CTOD of structural steels using the small punch test

“…In recent years, several researchers have tended to use notched small punch specimens [5,[18][19][20][21][22][23]. This type of specimen seems to be more suitable due to having an initial defect which acts as a stress concentrator.…”

Damage modeling in Small Punch Test specimens

“…One further aspect to take into consideration is the fabrication process [14]. Two techniques are mainly being used: (i) high-precision micromachining and (ii) laser-induced micromachining, which will be respectively referred to as micromachining and laser.…”

“…The aforementioned testing methodology, commonly known as Small Punch Test (SPT), employs very small specimens (generally, 8 mm diameter and 0.5 mm thickness) and may be considered as a non-destructive experiment. The SPT has consistently proven to be a reliable tool for estimating the mechanical [2,3] and creep [4,5] properties of metallic materials and its promising capabilities in fracture and damage characterization have attracted great interest in recent years (see, e.g., [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][14][15][16][17][18]). …”