Design of a novel tensile testing device and its application in tensile testing experiments on copper micro wires

A tensile testing device is a crucial device for the assessment of mechanics behavior of micro structures. This article presents a tensile testing device based on a piezoelectric actuator. The mechanical structures of the device, including flexible hinge and flexure driving connector, are designed and analyzed by using a finite element method. After careful analysis and determination for the key structural parameters, the tensile device was set up and tested so as to obtain the desired accuracy. Tensile tests on copper micro wires with phi 50 mu m diameter were conducted, and stress-strain curves and tensile patterns of the wires have been presented by using the device developed. It is shown that the resolution for tensile movement can be 10 nm, with the scattering position accuracy of +/- 0.01 mu m in a stroke of 37.1 mu m. The results from both simulation and experiments reveal that the tensile testing device developed is effective and reliable, and meets the design specifications.