Small punch test and simulation of HR3C steel

As the traditional uniaxial test requires substantial amount of cost and material usage for specimen, it is hardly applied to the direct diagnosis of structural integrity of in-service facilities. Small punch (SP) test has been, alternatively, introduced to procure material properties because SP test just needs a slice of material (10 × 10 × 0.5 mm) which can be easily obtained from real components without loss of integrity. In this study, for HR3C steel, SP tests were carried out and its three-dimensional finite element (FE) model was also developed to cross-validate the test results. Scanning electron microscope images for SP specimens were taken and compared with crack propagation simulation results generated by the extended finite element method. Furthermore, the minimum thickness change of specimen during the test was measured by several interruption tests. Configuration of SP test specimen was intensively observed with respect to punch displacement by both experiment and FE analysis, respectively.