The plane strain compression test, also known as the Watts-Ford test, is an engineering test, and is a particularly specialized way of determining some of the material characteristics of the metal being tested, and its specialization can be summarized by this quote: The test is useful when the sheet pieces are too small for a tensile test of a balanced biaxial test. It can give stress-strain curves up to considerably higher strains than tensile tests. The testing essentially consists of a thin metal bar being compressed by two equally wide compressive strips, which are located of opposite sides of the thin bar...