Mechanical testing

Mechanical testing covers a wide range of tests, which can be divided broadly into two types: There exists a large number of tests, many of which are standardized, to determine the various mechanical properties of materials.

In general, such tests set out to obtain geometry-independent properties; i.e. those intrinsic to the bulk material.

In practice this is not always feasible, since even in tensile tests, certain properties can be influenced by specimen size and/or geometry.

Here is a listing of some of the most common tests:[2]

Tensile test. A standard specimen is subjected to a gradually increasing load (force) until failure occurs. The resultant load-displacement behaviour is used to determine a stress–strain curve , from which a number of mechanical properties can be measured.