Dynamical characterisation of a miniaturised bulge tester for use at elevated temperatures

The bulge test is a standard technique to characterise thin films, but rarely has it been used to impose fatigue damage and extract subcritical thermo-mechanical data. It features, in contrast to many other methods a biaxial stress state. Since bulge testers have usually been used for static tests, dynamic characterisations of such test stands are widely missing. In this paper, we present and discuss the design of a minimized bulge tester for use at elevated temperatures. We measure and discuss the characteristics of the dynamic pressure loading behaviour and provide curves for pressure amplitudes as well as offset pressures. We investigate oscillating membranes with IR cameras and discuss thermal oscillations and cold spots at cracked membranes.