An inverse finite element procedure for the determination of constitutive tensile behavior of materials using miniature specimen

This paper contains the description of an experimental and a computational study of small punch test using circular disk shaped miniature specimen, through inverse finite element procedure. An inverse finite element procedure is developed and clubbed with ABAQUS computer code for the determination of constitutive tensile behavior of materials. The proposed inverse technique is based on the small punch experimental load vs. displacement curve. Small punch tests (SPT) are conducted on circular disk shaped specimen (10 mm diameter, 0.5 mm thick) made from three different steels. By using the output of experimental small punch test, constitutive stress–strain curves are traced through inverse technique. The computed constitutive stress–strain curves are compared with the curves obtained from a standard conventional tensile test and the results obtained for all the three cases demonstrate the effectiveness of the present inverse procedure.