Application of sub-miniaturized bending tests to extract tensile properties from neutron-irradiated metallic alloys

Abstract In this work, we demonstrate the applicability of sub-miniaturized three-point bending (3PB) testing for the extraction of tensile plastic properties of metallic materials, such as yield stress and work hardening rate. The approach is developed and validated on the example of tungsten. For this, dedicated finite element method (FEM) simulations are performed to reveal the correlation between the flexural stress-strain response in 3PB tests and yield stress in tensile tests. Furthermore, a dedicated inverse FEM procedure utilizing rate-sensitive isotropic physical model is developed to extract both yield stress and work hardening rate from the available set of bending tests. Both FEM-based approaches are first benchmarked on unirradiated materials and then validated using neutron-irradiated tungsten grades. The accuracy of the tensile properties extracted using both methods is discussed along with the estimation of a number of 3PB tests required to reach a target precision. The applicability of 3PB geometry for the extraction of tensile properties from unirradiated bending tests below ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) is also addressed.