High Pressure & Mechanical Testing
| High Pressure & Mechanical Tests |
| Support staff |
| Nassim BOUSSETI Noël GIRODON-BOULANDET Azziz HOCINI |
The HPEM scientific department supports and accompanies research in the fields of high pressure and mechanics of materials.
The CARAMEL platform was born within the laboratory in October 2017. It is a coherent technological platform for the elaboration and characterization of materials based on the equipment and know-how of the HPEM service.
The HPEM service guides researchers throughout their projects or studies.
It assists researchers from the development phase of solid materials (powder metallurgy) to the characterization of thermomechanical behavior to the analysis of performance (mechanical testing) through the shaping of materials (extrusion, rolling).
To do this, it relies on a machine park consisting of a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical simulator.
With a capacity of 10 tons and equipped with the “Pocket Jaw” module, this machine can be used to stress materials in tension or compression at a speed of between 0.001m/s and 1m/s and simultaneously carry out heat treatment cycles up to 1700°C in a vacuum or in a controlled atmosphere, for heating or cooling rates of the order of 10 000°C/s.
In addition, there are 3 testing machines with a maximum load of 10 tons: a servomechanical testing machine MTS 20/M, an INSTRON 1195 testing machine and a low cycle fatigue machine SCHENCK RMC 100, equipped with tensile, compression and bending fixtures.
A high capacity shear device (100 KN), entirely developed in the laboratory, allows to realize simple, cyclic or reversed shear tests at imposed deformation speed. The measurement of deformation is done by video-extensometry via a software developed in-house.
These test facilities are enhanced by an ARAMIS system for non-contact measurement of displacement and 3D deformation.
The department also has an automatic hardness testing machine STRUERS DURAMIN equipped with a Vickers indenter.
The machine park also includes two rolling mills, one of which is asymmetrical and instrumented. These rolling mills are dedicated to the study of microstructural evolution in large plastic deformations, textures and recrystallization in particular, as well as to the pre-deformation of crystallogenesis protocols. A furnace completes the set in order to carry out rolling steps at various temperatures in the range 0-750°C.
In connection with the microscopy department, the laboratory also has micromachines, allowing to carry out in situ experiments (SEM, confocal microscopy, …)
The high pressure part of the service includes among others :
A HIP press (Hot Isostatic Pressing). This technique of hot isostatic pressing allows the densification of materials by subjecting them to a thermal treatment under a high isostatic pressure. It is used to compact massive samples or encapsulated powders.
The press is designed to perform in parallel pressure cycles between 200 bar and 4000 bar and temperature cycles between 20°C and 1450°C.
A dilatometer ensures the measurement of the dimensional evolution of the samples during the compaction cycles. A vacuum system allows to carry out scans under gas.
A 20kbar press associated with a 10kbar regulation press.
This set, equipped with different devices, allows the realization of hydrostatic differential or direct extrusion tests or cold isostatic compaction tests. It also offers the possibility of carrying out traction and compression tests under hydrostatic pressure.
The department also has a 35-ton press designed to perform rapid uniaxial cold compaction with controlled force.