Elastoplastic buckling as source of misinterpretation of micropillar tests

Abstract Microscopic compression tests (micropillar tests) are typically used to obtain stiffness and strength properties of materials at small length scales. In this work it is shown that structural effects, in particular instabilities, have implications on the resulting load–displacement diagram. Care has to be taken when the measured load–displacement path of a micropillar is interpreted as a stress–strain path of the material. Several structural effects are discussed by means of computational analysis.