The Edge Shear Test - An Alternative Testing Method for the Determination of the Interlaminar Shear Strength in Composite Materials

The interlaminar shear strength is a characteristic value describing the mechanical behavior of composite materials such as laminates. Several methods for the determination of the interlaminar shear strength are described in open literature by several authors. Among these methods, the ILSS test (DIN EN ISO 14130) measuring the apparent interlaminar shear strength by using a modified bending test is the state of the art technique, as both the necessary testing equipment and the sample geometry are quite common. However, the ILSS tests implements shear loads indirectly by bending often leading to sample failure which is then not solely initiated by shear loads. Particularly for ductile matrices or those showing pronounced elastic behavior under bending, no interlaminar shear failure can be implemented and the interlaminar shear strength can not been determined or – if the user is not sensitized to the identification of non-shear failure behavior – the determined value is not correct.Up to now, alternative methods for determining the interlaminar shear strength implementing a shear load directly to the sample are quite elaborate regarding the test equipment to be used or the specimen preparation and geometry. In this contribution the authors present a novel test setup for an edge shear test which allows both a direct shear load and at the same time a reduced complexity of the specimen geometry which is comparable to those used in the ILSS test. The authors present results based on this novel testing method in comparison to conventional ILSS tests.