31 Jan 2007 10:00 pm
Bicycle Frame Testing
(under construction!)
A carbon fiber test section to simulate the stresses on the head-tube/down-tube junction under a frontal impact.
This test is interesting in that the tube section failed simultaneously in tension and compression, which shows the tube is well engineered. The externally wrapped joint exceeded the strength of the tube section, which was the design objective.
Compression failure on the underside of a steel test section.
This image shows the underside of a Columbus Ultra-Foco steel test section tested to failure in front impact simulation. The failure is well outside the heat effected zone and is symmetrical - the ultimate strength of the tube was obtained.
Side view of a steel test section.
This is a side view of the same steel test section.
Compression failure in a carbon fiber test section.
This test section failed mainly in compression. The longitudinal fibers on the top failed zone remained intact and the effected zone on the bottom shows considerable displacement and overlap of the fibers. Once again, the externally wrapped joint exceeded the strength of the tube section.
