This test method is designed to produce tensile property data for material specifications, research and development, quality assurance, and structural design and analysis. Factors that influence the tensile response and should therefore be reported include the following: material, methods of material preparation and lay-up, specimen stacking sequence, specimen preparation, specimen conditioning, environment of testing, specimen alignment and gripping, speed of testing, time at temperature, void content, and volume percent reinforcement. Properties, in the test direction, which may be obtained from this test method include the following:
Ultimate tensile strength,
Ultimate tensile strain,
Tensile chord modulus of elasticity,
Poisson’s ratio, and
Transition strain.
Specimens are placed in the grips of a Universal Test Machine at a specified grip separation and pulled until failure. For ASTM D3039 the test speed can be determined by the material specification or time to failure (1 to 10 minutes). A typical test speed for standard test specimens is 2 mm/min (0.05 in/min). An extensometer or strain gauge is used to determine elongation and tensile modulus.