Mechanical testing

Mechanical testing covers a wide range of tests, which can be divided broadly into two types:
 * 1) those that aim to determine a material's mechanical properties, independent of geometry.
 * 2) those that determine the response of a structure to a given action, e.g. testing of composite beams, aircraft structures to destruction, etc.

Mechanical testing of materials
There exists a large number of tests, many of which are standardized, to determine the various mechanical properties of materials. In general, such tests set out to obtain geometry-independent properties; i.e. those intrinsic to the bulk material. In practice this is not always feasible, since even in tensile tests, certain properties can be influenced by specimen size and/or geometry. Here is a listing of some of the most common tests:


 * Hardness Testing
 * Vickers hardness test (HV), which has one of the widest scales
 * Brinell hardness test (HB)
 * Knoop hardness test (HK), for measurement over small areas
 * Janka hardness test, for wood
 * Meyer hardness test
 * Rockwell hardness test (HR), principally used in the USA
 * Shore durometer hardness, used for polymers
 * Barcol hardness test, for composite materials
 * Tensile testing, used to obtain the stress-strain curve for a material, and from there, properties such as Young modulus, yield (or proof) stress, tensile stress and % elongation to failure.
 * Impact testing
 * Izod test
 * Charpy test
 * Fracture toughness testing
 * Linear-elastic (KIc)
 * K–R curve
 * Elastic plastic (JIc, CTOD)
 * Creep Testing, for the mechanical behaviour of materials at high temperatures (relative to their melting point)
 * Fatigue Testing, for the behaviour of materials under cyclic loading
 * Load-controlled smooth specimen tests
 * Strain-controlled smooth specimen tests
 * Fatigue crack growth testing
 * Non-Destructive Testing