MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION
CONVENTIONAL
CHARACTERIZATION
AMS staff has huge experience in Material Science and Fracture
Mechanics, its members have worked in R&D departments in civil
and aeronautical private sector and in research groups at university.
AMS offers a complete advisory concerning mechanical testing of
materials including:
- Design of experimental programs
- Flexural strength,tensile and compression
- Creep tests
- Fatigue and fracture tests
- Cryogenic Testing
- High temperature tests
- Tests in vacuum
- X-ray diffraction
- Neutron diffraction
- Residual stresses
NON-CONVENTIONAL
CHARACTERIZATION
ADVANCED MATERIAL SIMULATION, in
collaboration with the Materials Science Departmentof the
Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, has developed a novel technique for
materials characterization based on non-conventional tests.
The measurement of material mechanical properties is usually carried
out by means of simple specimens, as uniaxial tensile and compression
tests, or standard geometries, as the toughness fracture tests. This
characterization is not always possible due to geometrical constraints
or materials difficulties. In these situations alternative strategies
are proposed by AMS.
The methodology is based on combining experiments, numerical
calculations and nonlinear optimization algorithms. Thanks to this
procedure it is possible to determine the mechanical and fracture
properties of materials. The procedure has been successfully applied
to determine the following magnitudes:
- Plastic stress-strain curve in nuclear fuel cladding from
the ring tensile test
- Plastic stress-strain curve in nuclear fuel cladding from
the ring tensile test
- Plastic stress-strain curve in A533 steel from notch round
tesile specimens
- Plastic stress-strain curve from spherical nanoidentation
tests
- Calculation of fracture energy in hydrided fuel cladding
from diametral compression tests
- Calculation of fracture toughness vessel steels from
notched tensile tests
The results of these works have been publish in scientific journals and
proceeding of international meetings as appear in
AMS-Publications
The triple combination of experimental results,
numerical
calculations by finite elements and nonlinear optimization algorithms
allows to determine the mechanical and fracture
properties of materials in extreme conditions, where it is not possible
standard mechanical tests.
Possible Applications
- Characterisation of materials at different temperatures and
deformation speeds
- Mechanical properties of irradiated materials
- Mechanical characterization of welds
- Mechanical behavior of coatings or layers of oxide possible
An overview of the method could be observed in the next figures.
- AMS inverse analysis algorithm to determine the plastic
stress-strain.
- Estimation of fracture toughness tests using non-standard
tests. The toughness of KIC or the integral
initiation JIC obtained from
standard fracture tests that require large amounts of material. An
alternative method is to use mechanical tests where a
crack propagates stably and the cohesive zone model.