The course is aimed at the description of the experimental procedures related to the measurement of the main mechanical properties of polymeric materials, focussing the attention on the instrumental aspects. For each property examined, the principles at the basis of its measurement will be also described.
More specifically, the course will describe the techniques most employed in the industrial and research laboratories for the evaluation of the mechanical properties of polymeric materials, evaluated both in quasi-static conditions at the universal testing system, UTS, and in impact conditions at the pendulum and at the drop weight tester. With reference to the experiments at the UTS, tensile, compression and flexural tests will be examined. With reference to the impact tests, both non-instrumented and instrumented experiments will be examined.
Technical datasheets of industrial materials will be analyzed and the main databases for the obtainment of the datasheets presented.
For selected properties, the reference standards will be presented and discussed.
The course will also discuss the basic concepts for the statistical representation of the data and for the evaluation of the errors related to the measurement.