those that determine the response of a structure to a given action, e.g. testing of composite beams, aircraft structures to destruction, etc.
Mechanical testing of materials
Tensile test. A standard specimen is subjected to a gradually increasing load (force) until failure occurs. The resultant load-displacement behaviour is used to determine a stress–strain curve, from which a number of mechanical properties can be measured.
There exists a large number of tests, many of which are standardized, to determine the various mechanical properties of materials. In general, such tests set out to obtain geometry-independent properties; i.e. those intrinsic to the bulk material. In practice this is not always feasible, since even in tensile tests, certain properties can be influenced by specimen size and/or geometry. Here is a listing of some of the most common tests:[2]
Tensile testing, used to obtain the stress-strain curve for a material, and from there, properties such as Young modulus, yield (or proof) stress, tensile stress and % elongation to failure.