Temperature-dependent material characterizations for thin epoxy FR-4/ E-Glass woven laminate

A rapid and flexible material characterization system is presented. With this computerized testing module, thermally expansional and monotonic tests have been conducted to determine the elastic behavior of thin epoxy FR-4/ E-Glass woven laminates under different temperature levels. In this research the electrical resistance strain gauge technique is used to evaluate the test methods for different material properties. This includes two main steps for each temperature level. First is to test thermal expansions under stress-free conditions and then to test linear elastic constants in two dimensional cases. The thin laminates are assumed to be linear and orthogonal. The temperature-dependent properties of interest are coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs), Young´s moduli, shear moduli, and Poisson´s ratio. The temperature levels ranged between 23°C and 150°C, which is higher than the glass transition temperature (T_g), 125°C, of the tested material. The setup, the features and the capabilities of the automated material testing system are also discussed