German – Jordanian University (GJU)

Material Science Laboratory

IE 2210
Summer Semester 2008‐2009

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Experiment 10
Tensile Testing of Plastics

Mahmood Hisham Shubbak

Title Mark
Objective /10
Introduction /15
Method /15
Result /30
Discussion and Conclusion /20
Report Neatness /10
Total Mark /100

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Objective:
1. To investigate the tensile behavior of polymers.
2. To determine the following properties:
a. The relationship between tensile stress and strain.
b. Modulus of elasticity.
c. The tensile strength.
d. Percentage of elongation.

Introduction:
Strength can be defined as the ability of a material to resist applied forces without
yielding or fracturing.

The strength of materials can be determined using some kind of tests called Tensile
Test, in which a tensile load (force) is applied to a specimen of the material and its
extension is measured with respect to this load, i.e. Tensile test is used to measure
the force required to break a specimen and the extent to which the specimen
stretches or elongates to that breaking point.

Applying this test, the Stress‐Strain Diagram is produced, and we can investigate
the tensile behavior of the material and its properties from this diagram.

Stress (σ): the force acting per unit area. [MPa]

∆
Strain (ε): the measure of the elongation or contraction of a line segment in the body.

In this experiment we are studying the tensile behavior of some polymers (Plastics)
under specific conditions (such as temperature, initial geometry and speed of testing
.etc.)

The testing speed: is the rate of separation of the grips of the testing machine
during the test (expressed in [mm/min]).

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 The tensile behavior of polymers depends on many factors rather than the
composition and structure; it depends also on the temperature T and the strain rate
(testing speed).

Increasing the temperature results in decreasing of modulus of elasticity (E) and

Tensile strength TS but increasing in Ductility (%EL).

The effect of strain rate is completely the opposite of T; while the strain rate of
testing increases the ductility of the material decreases and it seems stronger.

Method:
1. Test Atmosphere:
a. Conduct the test in the same atmosphere used for conditioning the test
specimen. (the conditions we used in this experiment were:
T = 23 oC (+/‐ 2)
Humidity = 50% (+/‐ 5)

2. Dimensions of test specimen1:

e. Define the gauge marks on the test specimen; these shall be approximately
equidistance from the midpoint.
f. Measure the width (b) and the thickness (h) at the center of each end of
each specimen and within 5 mm of each end of the gauge length (4 readings
for each).
g. Calculate the arithmetic means for the width and
thickness of each specimen, which shall be used for
calculation purposes.

3. Clamping: place the test specimen in the grips.

4. Prestresses: the specimen shall not be stressed substantially

prior to test.

5. Adjustment of the Camera: after balancing the

prestresses, set and adjust the camera to be centered to the gauge length of the test
specimen.

6. Testing speed: set the speed of testing in accordance with the appropriate for the
material concerned.

7. Recording of data: record the force and the corresponding values of increase of
the gauge length and the distance between grips during the test using the automatic
recording system of the tester.

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In this experiment we have tested three specimens; 2 PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) specimens (with
different testing rate) and 1 HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) specimen.

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Results:
Applying the experiment method we got the following results:

1. Dimensions of test specimens:

Material Thickness (mm) Width (mm) Gauge Length (mm) Testing Speed
HDPE 3.06 6.12 25 100 mm/min
PVC1 3.3325 3.175 50 5 mm/min
PVC2 3.4 11.72 50 15 mm/min

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2. Stress‐Strain Diagrams:
The stress strain diagram for each specimen was drawn by the automatic
recording system of the tester and you can see them in the next pages.

Material Tensile Strength (MPa) Yield Stress YP (MPa) Ductility %EL

HDPE 25.6061 21.4127 640%
PVC1 50.3081 1.4514 150%
PVC2 50.7984 ‐ 63%

Discussion and Conclusion:

™ In this experiment we learned about the tensile testing of Polymers.
™ This test is carried out to study the tensile behavior of polymers (under
tensile load).
™ There are many properties related to this test such as strength, Ductility
toughness, stiffness and so on.
™ Polymers differ widely in their tensile behaviors.

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The diagrams on Pages(7‐9) are force‐extension diagrams, that we can turn into Stress‐Strain using
the two equations of Stress and Strain (in the introduction part of this report).

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™ The main aim of tensile test is to measure the strength of materials in term of
Tensile (Max) or Yield strength (stress).
™ The main difference between metals and polymers tensile behavior is that
polymers' depends on temperature and strain rate.
™ Another important difference is in ductility; since polymers (in general) are
much more ductile than metals.
™ Metals have more strength than polymers.
™ Here we have tested two types of polymers; HDPE and PVC, and we got the
following results:
o HDPE is more ductile than PVC.
o HDPE has less tensile strength than PVC.
™ Applying the tensile test on PVC specimens with different strain rate (5 and
15 mm/min), we got the following:
o By increasing the strain rate, the strength of polymer increases (here
the TS increased from 50.3081 MPa to 50.7984 MPa).
o By increasing the strain rate, the ductility of the polymer decreases
(here from %EL 150% to 63%).
And these results meet the theoretical information mentioned in the
introduction part of this report.
™ The PVC specimen with high strain rate has no yield strength i.e. it directly
deforms plastically without plastic deformation, because of the high testing
speed.
™ Tensile test is very important to check if the specimen meets the standards or
not.