Novel approach for tension testing micro tubes

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 ASME Due to the miniaturization of products, new or modified processes are required to create small components. With the development of these new processes, it is also important to establish methods to evaluate the mechanical properties of the materials used in these components. These properties are necessary for accurately creating representative predictive models and simulations. At the same time, this evaluation can be challenging as sampling specimens become smaller the securing and handling of these smaller specimens becomes very difficult. Recently, researchers made studies to develop and model the micro tube hydroforming (MTHF) process. In many of these studies, the mechanical properties used were either traditional book values or were values obtained directly from the manufacturers. The question then becomes, how do the manufacturers determine their provided mechanical properties? The research in this study focuses on the development and testing of a new process to determine the mechanical properties of stainless steel micro tubes. Specifically, a set of clamps for securing a micro tube in a standard tension-testing machine were developed. A method for localizing the stress within the middle of a specimen was developed and the findings are presented in this paper.