The ISO 14130 test method covers the determination of the apparent interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of fiber-reinforced plastic composites by the short-beam method. The method is suitable for composites with either a thermoset or thermoplastic matrix. The data obtained is not suitable for determining the design parameters, but it can be used for screening materials or for quality control. So with the various test samples there will also be variation on the failure mode, which is dependent on the fiber lay-up procedures used during manufacturing.
Our CP110860 shear fixture consists of a bar of rectangular cross section with two supports which the sample is placed with the loading member midway between the supports. The fixure incorporates a guided upper anvil to ensure parallel loading of the specimen. This test procedure has a smaller test span and the specimen thickness ratio is adopted to increase the level of shear stress relative to the flexural stress in the test specimen to encourage interlaminar shear failure.
We recommend testing with either the 3400 or 6800 Universal Testing Instruments with our dedicated Bluehill® Universal software modules for this application, as it can easily be configured with any of the other common composite test applications, such as tensile, flexural, and compression.
We recommend reviewing the ISO 14130 in full to understand the test fixture and results requirements relevant to the materials you are testing.