Flexural Testing for Composite Materials

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 composite materials

Bend testing in composites 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.

The Element advantage

Element’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.