MatTest
User Guide

Getting Started with MatTest

Follow this step-by-step guide to analyze your tensile test data in minutes.

1
Prepare and Upload Your Data File

MatTest accepts CSV (.csv, .txt, .tsv) and Excel (.xlsx, .xls) files exported from your universal testing machine or data acquisition system.

Your file should contain columns for at least one of:

  • Load/Force + Displacement/Extension (most common from UTM)
  • Engineering Stress + Engineering Strain (already processed)

Example CSV format (load + displacement):

Time (s), Load (N), Extension (mm)
0.0, 0.0, 0.000
0.5, 125.3, 0.025
1.0, 248.7, 0.050
...

Example CSV format (stress + strain):

Stress (MPa), Strain (%)
0.0, 0.000
10.0, 0.0048
25.5, 0.012
...

Navigate to Analyze and drag your file onto the upload area, or click to browse.

2
Map Your Columns

MatTest will automatically suggest column mappings based on common column name patterns. Review and adjust the mappings if needed.

Select your data type:

  • Load + Displacement: Choose which column is the force/load and which is displacement/extension
  • Stress + Strain (direct): Choose which column is engineering stress and which is engineering strain

A preview of the first 5 rows of your data is shown to help you verify the correct columns.

Tip: If your strain column is in percent (e.g., 0–30%), MatTest will automatically detect this and convert to fractional strain (0–0.30) for calculations.
3
Enter Specimen Information

Required for load+displacement mode:

  • Gauge Length (L₀): The original distance between extensometer or gauge marks. For standard dogbone specimens (ASTM E8): typically 50 mm or 2 inch.
  • Cross-sectional Area (A₀): The original cross-sectional area in the gauge section. For a rectangular section: width × thickness.
  • Load Unit: The unit of your load column (N, kN, lbf, kgf).

Analysis settings:

  • Yield Offset: Typically 0.2% (0.002 strain) per ASTM E8. Change for specific standards.
  • Smoothing: Moving Average is recommended for noisy data. Savitzky-Golay preserves peak shapes better.

Click Run Analysis to compute all properties.

4
Interpret Results

Property Cards:

  • Click the (i) icon on any card to see the definition and formula
  • R² values (next to E and n) indicate fitting quality — closer to 1.0 is better
  • If E R² < 0.99, review your data for noise or non-linearity in the elastic range

Charts:

  • Engineering S-S: Main curve with YS marker, UTS marker, offset line, and E-fit line
  • True S-S: Pre-necking (solid) and post-necking (dashed, approximate) curves
  • Hardening Curve: dσ/dε vs ε with σ_true, showing Considere intersection

Advanced Mode:

Switch to Advanced Mode using the button in the header to access fine-tuning controls for E-fit range, yield offset, smoothing window, and Hollomon range. Click Recompute after changing settings.

PDF & Excel Export:

Click Export PDF for a report with specimen information, property values, charts, and a disclaimer footer, or click Export Excel for a workbook containing the summary, derived curve data, and raw uploaded table.

Pro Tips

Noisy data: Increase the smoothing window size (e.g., 15–25) for very noisy hardening rate curves. This gives a cleaner Considere criterion result.

Multiple specimens: Refresh the page or navigate back to Step 1 to analyze another specimen. Browser state is not saved between sessions.

Very large files: If your file has more than 10,000 rows, consider downsampling to every 2nd or 5th row to speed up chart rendering.

Excel with multiple sheets: Only the first sheet is read. If your data is on a different sheet, save it as a separate file or copy it to Sheet 1.