title: Direct measurement of shear properties of microfibers.
abstract: As novel fibers with enhanced mechanical properties continue to be synthesized and developed, the ability to easily and accurately characterize these materials becomes increasingly important. Here we present a design for an inexpensive tabletop instrument to measure shear modulus (G) and other longitudinal shear properties of a micrometer-sized monofilament fiber sample, such as nonlinearities and hysteresis. This automated system applies twist to the sample and measures the resulting torque using a sensitive optical detector that tracks a torsion reference. The accuracy of the instrument was verified by measuring G for high purity copper and tungsten fibers, for which G is well known. Two industrially important fibers, IM7 carbon fiber and Kevlar(®) 119, were also characterized with this system and were found to have G = 16.5 ± 2.1 and 2.42 ± 0.32 GPa, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Behlow
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Durham
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Serkiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Skove
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rao