Complimentary Equipment and Fixtures
complimentary equipment & fixtures
Location
Across all mechanical testing labs
Contact
Garrison Hommer – ghommer@mines.edu
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Facility Details
The Mechanical Testing (MT) labs within the Mines Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF) include a variety of monotonic, fatigue, temperature, and strain measurement capabilities. These capabilities cover a wide range of load capacities and resolutions, displacement rates, loading configurations, and custom fixturing. Strain measurement capabilities are available for 1D, 2D, and 3D using extensometers and digital image correlation (DIC) across temperature ranges of -129 to 1200 °C.
EQUIPMENT
EXTENSOMETERS
Extensometers provide high resolution 1D strain measurements during mechanical testing. These measurements are necessary for accurate determination of material stiffness and strain-controlled testing. Special extensometers are used for transverse, fracture mechanics, and high temperature testing.
DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION
DIC is a noncontact full-field optical strain measurement technique used in conjunction with various mechanical testing techniques. Samples are speckled and a series of images is captured at a fixed frequency using high-resolution cameras synchronized with the load frame. The Correlated Solutions VIC software packages are used to analyze the images and compute strain measurements.
HEATING AND COOLING
Various furnaces and chambers allow for testing at temperatures from -129 to 1200 °C. These include an MTS environmental chamber, a box furnace, and an induction furnace.