Non‑conventional Small‑Scale Mechanical Testing of Materials

Abstract

Development of non-conventional mechanical testing tech‑
niques was primarily driven by the requirement to measure mechani‑
cal properties at smaller length scales with increasing miniaturization
of devices, as well as the need for microstructure design from bottom
up. This review covers the techniques involved in determining the smallscale deformation and fracture response of materials under different
stress states. This is an attempt to provide a summary of choices and
test protocols to potential users based on the property of interest to
them. It begins with the basics of test instrumentation and sample prepa‑
ration, followed by a short introduction to modeling tools that accompany
testing, and later gets into the details of individual tests and their advan‑
tages and limitations. Selected applications from recent published works
are presented to provide a favor of material systems whose behaviour
differs signifcantly from the macro-scale due to their size and/or archi‑
tecture. At the end fallacies in data interpretation and a roadmap to
standardization followed by ideas and future scope for non-conventional
small-scale testing are given.