Material plastic properties characterization by coupling experimental and numerical analysis of small punch beam tests

A novel small punch beam testing (SPBT) system consisting of a top die, a bottom die and a flat punch with semi-circular cross-section head has been designed and tested. The specimen is a small beam with rectangular cross-section. This SPBT method has the advantage over conventional tensile testing for much less material required for testing and also over the traditional small punch testing because not only less material required but also high accuracy to make the punch head. Through coupling the numerical modelling and experimental results, genetic algorithm has been employed to successfully characterize the material plastic properties.