A material testing apparatus includes an actuator to apply a force to a load head according to electronic control signals. The load head supplies a load to a material specimen in a first dimension. A plurality of load line displacement (LLD) reference points extend radially outward from the load head; and a plurality of LLD measuring devices correspond to the plurality of LLD reference points. Each LLD measuring device is positioned to detect a position of a corresponding LLD reference point along the first dimension and is configured to transmit position signals to a controller programmed to perform a performance test on the material specimen using feedback control based on a combination of the position signals, including an average of the position signals.

A testing system for causing a physical change in a crack tip region of a crack within a specimen. The testing system includes a load application system for applying a load to the specimen having the crack formed therein, an electrothermal system for applying an electrical current through the specimen and comprising a power supply and a controller operably coupled to the load application system and the electrothermal system. The load application system configured to perform a crack growth test on the specimen. A method of thermally influencing a crack tip region of a crack within a specimen includes applying at least one pulse of current to the specimen to generate flux tangentially around the crack within the specimen and at the crack tip region and causing the crack tip region of the crack within the specimen to reach a predetermined activation temperature.

A method including obtaining a metal pipe with a longitudinal submerged arc weld, an axis of the longitudinal submerged arc weld being oriented parallel to a rotationally symmetric axis of the metal pipe and cutting a first test beam and a second test beam from the metal pipe with each test beam extending on both sides of the axis of the longitudinal submerged arc weld and has a cuboid shape. The method further including forming a double-beam assembly by clamping two spacers between the first and second test beams such that the two spacers are symmetrically disposed at an equal distance on either side the longitudinal submerged arc weld. The method further including immersing the double-beam assembly in a liquid test solution for a predetermined period of time before removing it from the liquid test solution and disassembling the double-beam. The method further including examining the first and the second test beam using a metallographic sectioning method.

A method for determining characteristics of a crack detected in a material, comprising: determining initial mechanical loads applied to the material, applying a plurality of crack-opening mechanical loads to the material, each opening mechanical load being a linear combination of the initial mechanical loads, and measuring the relative displacement of the first point with respect to the second point induced by each opening mechanical load, applying a plurality of crack-closing mechanical loads to the material, each closing mechanical load being a linear combination of the initial mechanical loads, and measuring the relative displacement of the first point with respect to the second point induced by each closing mechanical load, and estimating the direction of the crack as a function of the amplitude of each opening and closing mechanical load applied to the material and of the measured relative displacements.

A method including obtaining a metal pipe with a longitudinal submerged arc weld, an axis of the longitudinal submerged arc weld being oriented parallel to a rotationally symmetric axis of the metal pipe and cutting a first test beam and a second test beam from the metal pipe with each test beam extending on both sides of the axis of the longitudinal submerged arc weld and has a cuboid shape. The method further including forming a double-beam assembly by clamping two spacers between the first and second test beams such that the two spacers are symmetrically disposed at an equal distance on either side the longitudinal submerged arc weld. The method further including immersing the double-beam assembly in a liquid test solution for a predetermined period of time before removing it from the liquid test solution and disassembling the double-beam. The method further including examining the first and the second test beam using a metallographic sectioning method.

A control device including a solder joint life predictor includes: a temperature sensor that measures temperature of a solder joint on an electronic circuit board that drives a heater and a motor; a storage that stores a reference acceleration factor that is an acceleration factor based on a test condition of a thermal shock test and a reference condition in an environment in which the electrical appliance is used; a calculator that calculates an actual acceleration factor from a temperature variation range and a maximum reached temperature of the solder joint during one cycle from start to end of driving of the heater or the motor; and a determiner that predicts the life of the solder joint by comparing the integrated value of the acceleration factor ratios with a threshold.

A new vibration test-cell that allows a static load to be applied simultaneously with lateral vibration coupled with in-situ microscopy that allows for the ability to open a fatigue crack up to a desired gap, as well as generate acoustic emission (AE) from vibration excitation, micro-fracture events are captured by the AE measurement while the physical observation of the crack faying surfaces is performed in-situ with an optical microscope embedded in the test cell.

The described technology can quantitatively evaluate a material embrittlement behavior under various gaseous hydrogen environments (temperature and pressure). The described technology may include a small-punch test device allowing a specimen to be fixed inside a jig comprising upper and lower dies, gas to be filled at the lower part of the specimen, and a punch for applying force to be included at the upper part thereof so as to bend the specimen in a vertical downward direction under an environment of the influent gas and measure the same. The small-punch test device also includes an insulating container provided so as to encompass the jig therein and a temperature measuring device connected to the inside of the insulating container so as to measure the internal temperature of the insulating container and the temperature of the specimen. The small-punch test device further includes a heat transfer device transferring heat to the specimen.

A material testing apparatus includes an actuator to apply a force to a load head according to electronic control signals. The load head supplies a load to a material specimen in a first dimension. A plurality of load line displacement (LLD) reference points extend radially outward from the load head; and a plurality of LLD measuring devices correspond to the plurality of LLD reference points. Each LLD measuring device is positioned to detect a position of a corresponding LLD reference point along the first dimension and is configured to transmit position signals to a controller programmed to perform a performance test on the material specimen using feedback control based on a combination of the position signals, including an average of the position signals.

Embodiments of the invention provide a machine learning based detection system, in which defects can be detected even if the system was not trained for these defects and even in items that were not used to train the system, thereby offering an inherently flexible detection system.