Direct current thermo-mechanical testing: Principles, uncertainty hierarchy, and its role in advanced materials characterisation
Abstract
Direct current thermo-mechanical testing (DC-TMT), based on resistive Joule heating, enables rapid heating and cooling, steep thermal gradients and simultaneous mechanical loading, making it a powerful tool for probing deformation, phase transformations, oxidation-assisted damage and creep under conditions inaccessible to conventional furnace-based methods. Despite its growing use, DC-TMT lacks formal standardisation and is often misinterpreted as equivalent to bulk isothermal testing, overlooking intrinsic differences in thermal and mechanical fields. This review addresses that gap by consolidating four decades of research on specimen geometry, temperature measurement, strain characterisation and environmental control, and by classifying uncertainty sources as dominant, secondary and conditional. Evidence from modelling and experiment shows that temperature gradients, heating rate and gauge representativeness govern the reliability of inferred material behaviour. Applications across aluminium, steels, nickel-based superalloys, titanium alloys, hardmetals, zirconium alloys, shape memory alloys and additively manufactured systems are critically assessed. The review highlights domains where DC-TMT provides reproducible mechanistic insight and conditions where direct equivalence with bulk data is not warranted. Implications include the need for transparent reporting, multi-sensor temperature validation and integration with electro-thermal modelling to enable rigorous, mechanism-focused interpretation.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{koko2026direct,
title = {{Direct current thermo-mechanical testing: Principles, uncertainty hierarchy, and its role in advanced materials characterisation}},
author = {Abdalrhaman Koko and Sodiq Abiodun Kareem and Olajesu Favor Olanrewaju and Rachael Williams and Justus Uchenna Anaele and Yuanbo T. Tang and Bryan Roebuck},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.25525},
eprint = {2608.25525},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.25525},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Direct current thermo-mechanical testing: Principles, uncertainty hierarchy, and its role in advanced materials characterisation
AU - Abdalrhaman Koko
AU - Sodiq Abiodun Kareem
AU - Olajesu Favor Olanrewaju
AU - Rachael Williams
AU - Justus Uchenna Anaele
AU - Yuanbo T. Tang
AU - Bryan Roebuck
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.25525
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.25525
AB - Direct current thermo-mechanical testing (DC-TMT), based on resistive Joule heating, enables rapid heating and cooling, steep thermal gradients and simultaneous mechanical loading, making it a powerful tool for probing deformation, phase transformations, oxidation-assisted damage and creep under conditions inaccessible to conventional furnace-based methods. Despite its growing use, DC-TMT lacks formal standardisation and is often misinterpreted as equivalent to bulk isothermal testing, overlooking intrinsic differences in thermal and mechanical fields. This review addresses that gap by consolidating four decades of research on specimen geometry, temperature measurement, strain characterisation and environmental control, and by classifying uncertainty sources as dominant, secondary and conditional. Evidence from modelling and experiment shows that temperature gradients, heating rate and gauge representativeness govern the reliability of inferred material behaviour. Applications across aluminium, steels, nickel-based superalloys, titanium alloys, hardmetals, zirconium alloys, shape memory alloys and additively manufactured systems are critically assessed. The review highlights domains where DC-TMT provides reproducible mechanistic insight and conditions where direct equivalence with bulk data is not warranted. Implications include the need for transparent reporting, multi-sensor temperature validation and integration with electro-thermal modelling to enable rigorous, mechanism-focused interpretation.
ER -