Quasi-static tensile properties of PMMA (Elium 188) and Epoxy (Epopox A-28) resins

The quasi-static tensile properties of PMMA (Elium 188) and Epoxy (Epopox A-28) resins are summarised in Table 1. 

Table 1. The average tensile properties of epoxy (Epopox A-28) and PMMA (Elium 188) resins

Property
Epoxy
 PMMA

Young's modulus of elasticity (GPa)
2.3 \(± \) 0.1
2.6 \(± \) 0.1

Tensile failure strength (MPa)
53.7 \(± \) 1.1
63.5 \(± \) 0.3

Elongation at failure (%)
6.1 \(± \) 0.4
6.6 \(± \) 0.3

Summary of the materials:

The epoxy was a standard resin (Epopox A-28, Amroy Europe, Lahti, Finland) polymerised by a polyether diamine hardener (Jeffamine D-23, Hunstman, Texas, USA) with a 35 wt% hardener to epoxy ratio. The resin was degassed before casting into an aluminium-made mould. The resin was cured following the manufacturer's instructions (i: at 90 °C for 24 h. ii: 150 °C for 2 h). The Epopox A-28 was used as an alternative for EPON 828 epoxy resin.

The PMMA was in-situ polymerised at the ambient conditions by mixing a liquid methyl methacrylate thermoplastic resin (Elium 188, Arkema, Colombes, France) and dibenzoyl peroxide initiator (BP-50-FT1, United Initiators GmbH, Pullach, Germany) with 3 wt% initiators to resin ratio. The resin was degassed before casting into an aluminium-made mould. 

Summary of the tensile testing

The quasi-static tensile tests were performed using a universal testing machine (model 5967, Instron, MA, USA). The testing was performed according to the ISO 527 testing standard. The dimensions of the dog-bone shape coupons were 4 mm (thickness) \(× \) 10 mm (width) \(× \) 170 mm (full-length). The gauge length was 50 mm. The specimen was prepared as 1A type in ISO 527. 
The tensile tests were performed by 30 kN load cell and 2 mm/min displacement rate. The displacement was recorded by a clip-on extensometer.