Preparation of Tensile Test
To set up our composite for testing, we first had to cut it into strips. A band saw was used for this purpose. To ensure proper breakage of the samples (in the middle away from the clamps of the tensile machine) the samples had to be necked down in the middle. What we hadn’t accounted for was the amount of the sample eaten up by the saw blade. We had laid out the strings within the sample such that each test sample would be exactly one inch wide. Using the band saw, however, would take some of that one inch away which would make it very hard to neck the samples enough. Instead we decided to try to salvage some of our samples by sacrificing those immediately next to them. By cutting every other sample wider, we were able to salvage 4 samples with 4 strings, 3 samples with 2 strings, and 4 samples with no strings. A representation of this can be seen in the following photographs.
In all, we managed to retain labeled samples 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,14,15,16,and17.
