Mechanical testing laboratory

Our mechanical testing machines allow investigating of many mechanical properties of unirradiated and irradiated (radioactive) specimens at the macro- and microscopic level: tensile, low- and high-cycle fatigue, fracture toughness, creep, impact, drop tower, nano-hardness to hardness. Most of them are equipped with temperature chamber to cover a wide range of temperature, from cryogenic temperature up to 1000 °C, in air or Ar/He atmosphere.

Examples of mechanical testing devices for radioactive materials

α-box with tensile test machine
Shielded drop tower
Instrumented nano-indenter

The mechanical testing also involves complex non-standard experiments under extreme boundary conditions (high-temperature water, liquid metals, irradiation, …) in unique facilities (STIP, in-situ irradiation creep, TMF, …).

Examples of facilities for mechanical tests under extreme boundary conditions

Thermo-mechanical (corrosion) fatigue facility
Liquid metal loop
Cyclic thermal shock facility