Using Imaging Techniques to Test Lateral
and Longitudinal Strain
Name: Li (Cassie) Xu
Class: BE 210
Several experiments performed in BE210 dealt with longitudinal strain but never lateral strain. However, it was always obvious that whenever a material expanded in one direction, it was compressing in the perpendicular direction. This experiment will turn those observations into real numbers.
The main objective is to examine how lateral strain relates to longitudinal strain (Poisson’s ratio) in different types of materials: one material that’s uniform and one that’s not. The hypothesis of the experiment is that polyurethane foam and chicken skin will have significantly different Poisson’s ratios. This is because according to Experiment 3 of BE210, longitudinal strain (which is related to Poisson’s ratio) was significantly different for the two materials.
In addition to the main objective, this experiment also aims to test the effect of increasing/decreasing the applied load weight on lateral and longitudinal strain and Poisson’s ratio.