A Multiple Tensile Specimen Test Device for Use in Liquid Hydrogen

Abstract

Tensile tests of materials in liquid hydrogen are usually accomplished in a rather slow and involved manner as compared to similar tests done at room temperature. The slowness of this procedure is due mostly to the difficulties of transferring liquid hydrogen and working inside a sealed container. Time spent in actually pulling a test specimen in liquid hydrogen amounts to only a fraction of the total time involved in conducting such a test. The bulk of the time is devoted to the “conditioning” of the test chamber; that is, the sequence of sealing, evacuating, purging, filling, emptying, warming, and reopening of the chamber.