An in-plane load measuring technique is developed to perform the strength test of the micro-cantilever. Based on electromagnetism theorem, Micro UTM (Universal Testing Machine) was in-house made with the load range ±1 N and the displacement range ±300 μm. It applies an in-plane load on the free-end of the micro-cantilever. The load acts as a bending moment for the root of the cantilever, but as a torque for the anchor. The results show that for samples with different sizes the ultimate loads range from 1.3 to 69.8 mN and the calculated torque is ap-proximately proportional to the square of the bonding length. Two failure modes, fracture at the root of the cantilever and fracture at the anchor, are observed by micro examination to the debris, which indicates that there is a critical design to achieve the strength bal-ance between the cantilever and the anchor. The work demonstrates that Micro UTM is a powerful in-strument for the strength test of the micro-cantilever and similar micro-structures.
Mechanical behavior and microstructure evolution of polycrystalline copper with nano-twins were investigated in the present work by finite element simulations. The fracture of grain boundaries are described by a cohesive interface constitutive model based on the strain gradient plasticity theory. A systematic study of the strength and ductility for different grain sizes and twin lamellae distributions is performed. The results show that the material strength and ductility strongly depend on the grain size and the distribution of twin lamellae microstructures in the polycrystalline copper.
Studies of nanoindentation were performed on nc-Si：H films to evaluate the effects of the fabrication processes on their mechanical properties. It is observed that with the decrease of the SiH4 contents, the grain size of the films increases gradually, and as does the crystalline volume fraction. The smaller the grains become, the more homogeneous the films, and the more even the hardness as well as the modulus will be. The hardness and the modulus will increase with the substrate＇s temperature rising. The hardness and the modulus of the nc-Si：H films on the Si substrate prove to be higher than those on the glass substrate given the same technology parameters. How- ever, the films on the glass substrate appear to be more homogeneous.
A shear-lag model is used to study the mechanical properties of bone-like hierarchical materials. The relationship between the overall effective modulus and the number of hierarchy level is obtained. The result is compared with that based on the tension-shear chain model and finite element simulation, respectively. It is shown that all three models can be used to describe the mechanical behavior of the hierarchical material when the number of hierarchy levels is small. By increasing the number of hierarchy level, the shear-lag result is consistent with the finite element result. However the tension-shear chain model leads to an opposite trend. The transition point position depends on the fraction of hard phase, aspect ratio and modulus ratio of hard phase to soft phase. Further discussion is performed on the flaw tolerance size and strength of hierarchical materials based on the shear-lag analysis.
