ME 3701 Final: Lab 7 Mechanical Properties Of Polymers
Document Summary
This report covers the process and results of tensile tests performed on two different polymers to determine their characteristics. Nylon was used as a thermoplastic sample and acrylic was used as the thermoset sample. The samples were tested in the instron and all data compiled and graphed by a computer. The data was used to calculate the values in table 1 and to create the stress-strain curves in figures 4 and 5. It was concluded that thermosets are low toughness and do not plastically deform very much at all before fracturing in a brittle manner. Thermosets are ideal for low loadings where minimal deflection is desired. Thermoplastics are high toughness and plastically deform to a large degree. Thermoplastics are ideal for uses where energy absorption is most important and deflection is not a concern. Figure 1: modulus of elasticity vs temperature and characteristics of each zone 6. Figure 2: nylon sample set in instron machine 7.
