Roger Hurst

A renaissance in the use of the Small Punch Testing technique

The underlying purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether the CEN CWA 15627 “Small Punch Test Method for Metallic Materials” first published in 2006 has indeed succeeded in providing a stimulus for a wider implementation of the small punch test technique in industrial applications throughout Europe and indeed worldwide. A wealth of research progress has been apparent, as strongly evidenced in three dedicated SSTT (Small Specimen Testing Techniques) conferences held in Europe over the last five years, but also in the wider literature. In particular it is important to mention the recent publication of a Japanese standard and the announcement of parallel progress in China. The present paper concentrates on progress within Europe from the launch of the Code to the present day. In particular attention is focused on the need for industrial acceptance of the test methodology and methods for evaluating the results. Some scepticism still seems to prevail within sectors of the conventional power generation industry, an industry which can potentially benefit most from successful remanent lifetime extension tools of which small punch testing can be considered as a prime candidate. In spite of this, it is demonstrated that a major proportion of the Small Punch testing research of the last decade has been carried out on power plant steels. Meanwhile it is shown that there is evidence that the original remit of the methodology in assessing the integrity of irradiated nuclear plant remains active, new interest is developing for aerospace and next generation nuclear applications enhancing further the credibility of the Code.© 2015 ASME

The Present SP Tests for Determining the Transition Temperature TSP on “U” Notch Disc Specimens

The principal difference between the small punch (SP) testing technique and standardized impact testing lies in the fact that the SP tests carried out in accordance with CWA 15627 Small Punch Test Method for Metallic Materials use disc-shaped test specimens without a notch. Especially in tough materials, the temperature dependence of SP fracture energy ESP in the transition area is very steep and lies close to the temperature of liquid nitrogen. In this case, the determination of SP transition temperature TSP can lead to significant errors in its determination. Efforts to move the transition area of penetration testing closer to the transition area of standardized impact tests led to the proposal of the notched disc specimen 8 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm in thickness with a “U” shaped notch 0.2 mm deep in the axis plane of the disc. The paper summarizes the results obtained to date when determining the transition temperature of SP tests TSP, determined according to CWA 15627 for material of pipes made of P92, P22, and a heat treated 14MoV6-3 steel in the as delivered state. Although the results obtained confirmed the results of other works in that the presence of a notch in a SP disc is insufficient to increase the transition temperature significantly and certainly not to the values obtained by Charpy testing, comparison of the different behaviors of the alloys tested reveals some evidence that the notch reduces the energy for initiation. This implies that the test on a notched disc is more a test of crack growth and would be a useful instrument if included in the forthcoming EU standard for SP testing.

Influence of specimen geometry and strain rate on ductile brittle transition characterisation of reactor pressure vessel steels using the small punch technique

The small punch (SP) tensile test, originally developed for assessing the integrity of nuclear containments, has seen a renaissance in recent years with the introduction of a Code of Practice and a standardisation proposal. For nuclear applications, the extremely low volumes of material that are required allows specimens to be manufactured from quasi-destructive scoop samples, surveillance specimens or even previously tested Charpy specimens. The low volume of material also alleviates the health and safety requirements and the cost associated with testing active materials. By assessing the energy absorbed before fracture, it is possible to build an entire SP ductile-brittle transition curve using less material than is required for a single Charpy test.Small punch testing has been performed on SA 508-3 NESC-1 spinning cylinder material to establish ductile-brittle transition data, for comparison to that obtained by conventional Charpy impact test techniques. Multiple SP ductile-brittle transition curves have been constructed, building upon the framework of the existing Code of Practice. Novel geometries and associated machining techniques employed to incorporate notches into the surface of the SP specimen, and also the application of relatively high strain rates have been investigated. Post-test fractography illustrates the influence of both stress raising features and strain rate on small punch fracture behaviour.Copyright

Mechanical Property Characterisation of Electron Beam Melted (EBM) Ti-6Al-4V via Small Punch Tensile Testing

Small punch (SP) tensile testing provides several advantages over conventional test techniques for mechanical property characterisation of components produced using novel manufacturing processes. Additive layer manufacturing (ALM) is becoming more widespread, particularly in high value manufacturing sectors such as the gas turbine industry as it allows near net shape manufacture of near fully dense components with complex geometries. One such ALM process which is receiving attention from the gas turbine industry is electron beam melting (EBM), a powder bed process which uses an electron beam energy source. The additive nature of ALM processes including EBM results in the microstructures produced differing significantly to those produced by conventional processing techniques. As well as being influenced by the input parameters, the microstructure and hence mechanical properties are also affected by the geometry of the component being manufactured, primarily due to the effect this has on the cooling characteristics. SP testing of material manufactured by EBM allows the mechanical property characterisation of local component representative geometries which wouldn’t be possible using conventional uniaxial testing techniques. This work is aimed towards developing and validating the SP tensile technique for this application; different Ti-6Al-4V material variants manufactured using EBM as well as conventional methods have been characterised with a range of test conditions.

A Novel Approach to Small Punch Fatigue Testing

Miniaturised mechanical test approaches are now widely recognised as an established means of obtaining useful mechanical property information from limited material quantities. To date these methods have largely been adopted to characterise the creep, tensile and fracture characteristics of numerous material systems from a range of industrial applications. One method developed for miniaturised testing is the small punch test. Many international institutions and research faculties have now made a significant investment in realising the potential that small punch testing has to offer. However, limited success has been made in replicating a miniaturised test approach for determining the cyclic fatigue properties of a small punch disc due to the complex biaxial stress field that typically occurs in any small punch test. Therefore, to realise such an approach and to interpret the fatigue behaviour of small scale components, the mechanical test arrangement must clearly be of a highly bespoke nature. This paper will discuss the ongoing research and progress in developing a novel small punch fatigue testing facility at the Institute of Structural Materials in Swansea University. Several experiments have been performed on the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V at ambient room temperature and effort has been made to understand the complex damage mechanism.