Element helps material manufacturers and product designers in the aerospace, automotive, and renewable energy sectors to evaluate material properties in flexural mode by providing three-point and four-point bend testing.

Flexural Test for Composites

Bend testing in composite materials is used to determine flexural strength and stiffness of a solid laminate or sandwich construction.

The specimen is loaded in a horizontal position in a three-point or four-point loading configuration in a flexural test. The test fixture has a support point near each edge of the beam and a loading nose with one (third-point loading) or two (four-point loading) configurations.

The distance between supports, and the loading points in the four-point configuration, can be easily modified to adapt the fixture to different specimen geometries and thickness-to-length ratios. 

Flexural is a combination of three properties:

  • Tensile 
  • Compression
  • Shear

The specimen in flexure will fail once one of the three basic stresses reaches its limiting value. The test result can help to understand the failure mode of a given geometry and loading configuration.

 

ASTM standards for Flexural Testing

ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ test to EN, ISO, and ASTM standards for flexural testing of composite materials. The ASTM standards include:

  • ASTM D6272 - Flexural Test Composites Four-Point Bending
  • ASTM D7264 - Standard Test Method for Flexural Properties of Polymer Matrix Composite Materials
  • ASTM D790 - Flexural Properties of Unreinforced and Reinforced Plastics and Electrical Insulating Materials Three-Point Bending
  • ASTM C393 - Flexural Properties of Sandwich Constructions
  • ASTM D7249 - Facing Properties of Sandwich Constructions by Long Beam Flexure
 

The ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ advantage in Flexural Testing of Composites

ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s experts provide Testing to ASTM, ISO, and EN standards for solid laminates and sandwich constructions to ensure the materials and products we test are safe and fit-for-purpose.

Get in touch for further information flexural testing of composite materials.

Solid laminates:

  • ASTM D790
  • ASTM D6272
  • ASTM D7264
  • EN 2562
  • ISO 178
  • ISO 14125

Sandwich constructions:

  • ASTM C393
  • ASTM D7249

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