Destructive Testing

In destructive testing, tests are carried out to the specimen's failure, in order to understand a specimen's structural performance or material behaviour under different loads. These tests are generally much easier to carry out, yield more information, and are easier to interpret than nondestructive testing.

Destructive testing is most suitable, and economic, for objects which will be mass produced, as the cost of destroying a small number of specimens is negligible. It is usually not economic to do destructive testing where only one or very few items are to be produced (for example, in the case of a building).

Some types of destructive testing:

• Stress tests
• Crash tests
• Hardness tests
• Metallographic tests

destructive testing mechanical testing

Bend testing is a type of destructive testing of weldment.