On the Need for Updated Standards for Mechanical Tests: Integrating Material Testing 2.0 into Classical Mechanical Tests

Standard mechanical tests have long guided material testing, ensuring reproducibility and comparability. Tests like tensile, shear, and bulge, analyzed by a classical approach, require standard geometries and test procedures, being limited to simple scalar outputs for global mechanical properties. However, this approach fails to capture the localized, complex responses of advanced materials that exhibit anisotropy, heterogeneity, and nonlinear responses. A paradigm shift known as Material Testing 2.0 (MT2.0) integrates advanced techniques such as full-field measurements (FFMs) and inverse identification methods to enable the characterization of localized material behavior in modern engineering materials under deformation. Despite substantial progress in metrological assessment, full-field measurements, inverse identification techniques, and good practices guidance, these developments remain only partially harmonized within existing mechanical testing standards. In particular, no widely adopted end-to-end framework currently integrates experimental design, full-field measurements, inverse identification, uncertainty assessments, parameter validation, and reporting for MT2.0-based material characterization. This work presents a review of the main classical mechanical testing standards and their limitations while introducing the concept of MT2.0. While its techniques and benefits are examined in relation to classical approaches, this work identifies the gaps between existing component-level guidance and a harmonized framework for integrating MT2.0 methodologies into standardized mechanical testing, highlighting its need for scientific and industrial communities. Establishing international standards for MT2.0 is crucial for enhanced material model calibration to support numerical simulations and product development phases.