High-temperature small punch test for mechanical characterization of a nickel-base super alloy

A testing device is presented, which allows the mechanical testing of miniaturized specimens at temperatures up to 1273 K. Small punch specimens made from a thermally sprayed nickel-base super alloy are tested at different temperatures and under different atmospheres. The tests are accompanied by finite element simulations. The sequential programming algorithm is used to determine the constitutive material parameters by minimizing the difference between simulated and experimentally obtained small punch force–displacement curves. These findings are compared to results received by high-temperature tensile tests on standard-sized samples.