SPECIMEN DESIGN FOR MECHANICAL TESTING OF HIGHLY-ORIENTED POLYMERS

Tensile and in-plane shear specimens have been designed using finite e lement analysis to enable satisfactory testing of highly-drawn flat st rip polymer. The analyses have shown that the required specimen geomet ry for tensile testing is very dependent on the degree of anisotropy o f the material. A geometry correction factor has been determined for t he in-plane shear specimen to relate the applied load to the shear str ess at the centre of the gauge area. Simple tube specimens have also b een analysed using anisotropic thin shell theory.