| Abstract: | The testing conditions of a fibre bundle tensile tester (TENSOR) are elongation speed (ES), gauge length (GL), pretension, jaw pressure, environmental temperature and relative humidity, instrument linearity and sensitivity. The effects on fibre-bundle tensile properties at different GL and ES have been discussed in detail and compared with Peirce's theories on the weaklinks and the breaking time effect. The experimental results indicate that the tensile properties of fibre bundles are strongly affected by GL and vary with different GL. The reasonable GL should be 5-15mm rather than 3.2mm for wool bundle measurements. The ES ranging from 20mm/min to 40mm/min is beneficial for obtaining comparatively stable and accurate tensile values, whereas 20 mm/min used in current testing for wool fibre bundles is at the lower limit of the suggested range. For bundle modulus measurement, the sampling interval must be selected appropriately. The new calculation of the sampling interval has been established. |
