072 - Experimental approach for metals mechanical behaviour characterization at high temperature: development of a complex tensile test machine

To characterize the mechanical behaviour at high temperature close to the melting point, a tensile test machine has been developed through resistive heating by Joule effect. A closed chamber is designed to control the working environment. By the two windows in the chamber, the temperature and displacement fields can be measured directly. For the machine, both temperature and tensile force can be controlled by the proportional-integral-derivative controller. In this paper, the main features of the machine’s design and development will be discussed, with a specific section dedicated to the optimization of the specimens’ shape, which is of utmost importance in the context of Joule heating.