Composite Materials Construction and Testing

This course provides aspects of the materials construction and testing, and examines manufacturing tolerances and their impact in the materials construction processing. It presents specific test methods such as tensile, ILT, and ILS, and includes discussions on use of the building block approach and the statistics of allowable testing. Testing methods include layup tensile coupons, layup and interlaminar tension (ILT) test (right angle bracket). Participants receive pre-kitted plies for quasi-isotropic 16 ply laminate (carbon epoxy), as well as for ILT specimen, prepared laminates and machined/instrumented test specimens. Additionally, mechanical test lab safety is discussed. Several test types are presented during the course, including ILS (ASTM D6415), Tension (ASTM D3039), beam shear (or inter-laminar shear, ASTM D2344), and the data report preparation per ASTM requirements. Students will have “hands-on“ construction and coupons testing.