Comparing the mechanical properties of glass reinforced composites

In yachting, the current regulation for yachts is UNI EN ISO 12215 (Small craft -- Hull construction and scantlings -- Part 5: Design pressures for monohulls, design stresses, scantlings determination) which, in section 1, defines test methods and the minimum mechanical properties that composite material must have to be used to build the hull. In particular, the standards suggest using tensile tests, flexural tests, interlaminar shear tests and in plane shear tests. It gives all the information needed to carry out these tests, including the dimensional of the specimens obtained by cold cutting sheets of composite with diamond discs. The standards also give the various geometric details needed to construct test equipment, other test conditions such as speed and the number of tests. In particular, for each type of resin a minimum of five samples are required. The tests were carried out on an Italsigma hydraulic testing machine with 100kN HBM Gmbh load cells.