On behalf of the High Temperature Alliance, Jacobs manages the UK High Temperature Facility (HTF) at Birchwood Park, Warrington, where we also operate the largest commercial nuclear laboratories in the UK. The HTF site offers research into the performance of materials at low and high temperatures and in unusual environments is vital for many industries, to predict performance and to inform the selection of advanced materials for use in new and innovative concepts.
Testing offered by the HTF includes, but is not limited to:
- Tensile testing (loads up to 100 kN in tension and compression)
- Fracture testing (loads up to 250 kN and in the temperature range -196 to 1000°C)
- Creep strain / rupture (loads up to 30 kN)
- Creep crack growth (loads up to 30 kN)
- Testing in environments including vacuum, gases, low and high temperatures
- Strain and load-controlled low cycle fatigue initiation (loads up to 100 kN in tension and compression)
- Fatigue crack growth (loads up to 100 kN in tension and compression)
- Creep-fatigue initiation / growth (loads up to 100 kN in tension and compression)
- Thermo-mechanical fatigue initiation / growth (loads up to 100 kN in tension and compression)
- Miniaturised tensile / creep / fatigue testing (loads up to 10 kN)
- High cycle fatigue endurance / crack growth (up to 100 Hz test frequency and loads up to 10 kN)
To enable detailed analysis of tests the rigs can be equipped with the following analytical instrumentation:
- Digital image correlation for full field strain measurement (especially useful where welds are present)
- Acoustic emission monitoring equipment for monitoring crack initiation and propagation
- Potential difference monitoring equipment for monitoring crack initiation and crack growth
