Small Punch Testing to Estimate the Tensile and Fracture Properties of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V

Published

March 15, 2021

Author(s)

Enrico Lucon, Jake Benzing, Nik Hrabe, Nicholas Derimow

Abstract

Small Punch (SP) testing is a methodology that uses tiny disks (generally 8 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm thick) to estimate mechanical properties of metallic materials, such as tensile properties, fracture toughness, and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. Empirical correlations are typically used to infer conventional mechanical properties from characteristic forces and displacements obtained from the test record. Most of the available literature relates to SP testing of steels, while relatively little is available for other metallic materials. At NIST in Boulder, Colorado, we conducted SP tests on additively manufactured (AM) Ti-6Al-4V with different processing parameters (scan length, type of connection between specimens and build plate, Hot Isostatic Pressing conditions). Force/punch displacement curves appeared different than those typically reported for steels, and correlations with tensile and fracture parameters were generally weaker than those published for steel samples. It appears that the application of the SP technique, which is characterized by a biaxial loading mode, to materials with high anisotropy such as AM materials may be somewhat problematic and therefore of limited applicability.

Citation

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Volume

30

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-05603-9

Local Download

Keywords

Additive manufacturing, empirical correlations, fracture toughness, Small Punch, tensile properties, Ti-6Al-4V

Citation

Lucon, E. , Benzing, J. , Hrabe, N. and Derimow, N. (2021), Small Punch Testing to Estimate the Tensile and Fracture Properties of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-05603-9, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=929592 (Accessed May 9, 2026)

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