A Novel Hybrid Heating Method for Elevated Temperature Mechanical Testing of Miniature Specimens Available to Purchase

The lack of robust testing systems to generate uniform elevated temperatures on specimens in material tests is hindering the advancement of small specimen testing technology (SSTT). The purpose of this study is to develop a novel hybrid heating method combining coil heating and electric-resistance specimen heating to uniformly heat micro specimens in material tests. In a hybrid heating process, two heating coils are used to heat the local temperatures on the specimen ends, and electric current is conducted through the specimen to generate Joule heat and compensate the heat transfer effects of natural convection and radiation around the specimen center area. In this way, a highly uniform temperature distribution can be generated on the specimen between the heating coils. In this study, Thermal-Electrical and Transient Thermal FEA simulations are applied to analyze the temperature distributions and preheating times on the micro specimens under coil heating, electric-resistance specimen heating, and hybrid heating respectively. According to the simulation results, it can be concluded that hybrid heating method can provide the ability to generate highly uniform elevated temperature conditions on different micro tubular specimens with short preheating times.