DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A HORIZONTAL TENSILE TESTING MACHINE FOR POLYMER COMPOSITES
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The 10-ton manually operated horizontal tensile test machine gives excellent understanding of tensile properties of polymer composites. The machine consists of a frame, load cell, controller, indicator and grips to hold the sample in place. The frame provides the structure and rigidity needed to pull the sample apart at the desired rate. Load cells measure the amount of force being applied to the sample. The maximum tensile load to break a sample with cross section area of 800 mm2 and an ultimate tensile strength of at most 119.375 MPa was determined to be 95.5 kN. Thus, the maximum tensile force requirement of the machine was set to 100 kN. The load is measured with load cells with 0.20% of the maximum rated load. Horizontal tensile test machine of the present study was tested for performance using standard tensile test specimens. The test was used to determine the tensile strength, fracture stress, young modulus and poisson ratio of polymer composites. The test results was compared to the test results obtained from Ametek LD - Digital Tensile Testers from Ametek Inc and the value of deviation was found to be 0.4736 on average. The Horizontal tensile testing machine gave an efficiency of 83.09% which is reasonable and as such the Horizontal tensile testing machine is recommended for use to determine the tensile properties of reinforced polymer composites.
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