File Name and Content Convention for Plastics Data Sets

1. Data File Name Convention:

<material>_<temperature>_<specimen type>_<loading type>_<loading rate>_<experiment number>

• Material: This is an abbreviation of the customer supplied material identification.

• Temperature: This is the temperature at which the experiment was performed, in degrees
Celsius (unless otherwise noted). If no temperature is indicated, the tests were performed at the
default “room temperature” (23°C).

• Specimen Type: This refers to the geometry of the test specimen. Abbreviations include:

o ST: Simple Tension

o BN: Bending
o SC: Simple Compression
o SS: Simple Shear

• Loading Type: This refers to the manner in which the material is strained. Abbreviations include:

o SCL: Slow Cyclic Loading. In Slow Cyclic Loading, the specimen is stretched to a
selected strain level and then unloaded at the same rate to a near zero stress condition.
This may be repeated multiple times at a particular selected strain level or at multiple
selected strain levels. The purpose of this loading is to observe the “softening” behavior
of the material.
o SL: Single Loading, No Transverse Strain. The specimen is stretched only once, but not
necessarily to failure.
o PR: Single Loading with Transverse Strain. The specimen is stretched only once, but not
necessarily to failure. Transverse Strain is recorded and Poisson’s Ratio is calculated.

• Loading Rate (Strain Rate): The rate at which the material is strained. Loading Rate will be
expressed in ‘strain per second’, or mm/mm/s and the letter ‘p’ is used to indicate a decimal point.
For example, 0p5 means the loading strain rate was 0.5/s. If no Loading Rate is indicated, the
default Loading Rate of 0.001/s applies.

• Experiment Number: This is the repetition number for the experiment.

File Name Convention Example: “ABC_-20C_ST_PR_0p1_1_S8”

This file would contain the data for material ABC, tested in Simple Tension using Slow Cyclic Loading at
-20°C. The loading rate was 0.1/s and this is the data for the first repetition of the experiment and it is
only the data from loading segment 8.

2. Experimental Data Units and Format:

The data files are simple tab delimited ASCII files. They can be read with a basic text editor or they may
be read into a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel.

Axel Products, Inc. • www.axelproducts.com

2255 S. Industrial Highway • Ann Arbor • Michigan • 48104-8106 • USA
P: (+1) 734-994-8308 • F: (+1) 734-994-8309 • E: info@axelproducts.com
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The test data may contain two or four columns. The total experimental data without segment designator
contains three columns. Individual segment data contains only the first two columns.

• Column A: Engineering Axial Strain based on the original gauge length.

• Column B: Engineering Stress in MPa based on the original specimen cross section.

• Column C: Engineering Transverse Strain (if measured)

• Column C or D: Time in seconds.

• Column D or E: Crosshead position in mm (not always included; not used in calculations)

Axel Products, Inc. • www.axelproducts.com

2255 S. Industrial Highway • Ann Arbor • Michigan • 48104-8106 • USA
P: (+1) 734-994-8308 • F: (+1) 734-994-8309 • E: info@axelproducts.com
Page 2 of 2