Glossary

American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) is a public service membership society that is dedicated to the formal recognition of competent testing and calibration laboratories (including medical laboratories), biobanking facilities, inspection bodies, product certification bodies, proficiency testing providers, and reference material producers.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association representing highway and transportation departments. It represents all five transportation modes: air, highways, public transportation, rail, and water with the goal to foster the development, operation, and maintenance of an integrated national transportation system.

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national construction industry trade association representing more than 22,000 members nationwide.

American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is a federation of 52 state and regional councils representing more than 600,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors and other specialists. Their primary mission is to strengthen the business environment for our member firms through government advocacy, political action, and business education.

The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) is a not-for profit organization that has been the voice of Canadian consulting engineering companies since it was founded in 1925.

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) is a leading authority and resource worldwide for the development, dissemination, and adoption of its consensus-based standards, technical resources, educational programs, and proven expertise for individuals and organizations involved in concrete design, construction, and materials, who share a commitment to pursuing the best use of concrete.

American Council of Independent Laboratories is the trade association representing independent, commercial scientific and testing laboratories.

The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) is the world’s largest trade association that exclusively represents the interests of those involved with the design, construction, and preservation of concrete pavements.

A rod, mounted on the load frame that is driven up or down using servohydraulic force. Applied to servohydraulic systems only.

Measure of the adherence of porcelain enamel and ceramic coatings to sheet metal.

The Academy of Geo-Professionals (AGP) to provide excellence in leadership by elevating the professional practice of geotechnical engineering through advanced certification, continuing education, and ethical practice.

Index of the resistance of a plastic to surface penetration by a specified indenter under specified load applied with a Rockwell hardness tester. Higher values indicate higher indentation hardness. (ASTM D-785)

The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) is a non-governmental organization that provides accreditation services and training to public- and private-sector organizations, serving the global marketplace.

Anisotropic materials are materials whose properties vary when measured in different directions.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation’s oldest engineering society. The Society advances civil engineering technical specialties through nine dynamic institutes and leads with its many professional- and public-focused programs.

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. (ASNT) is the world's largest technical society for nondestructive testing (NDT) professionals. They provide a forum for exchange of NDT technical information; NDT educational materials and programs; and standards and services for the qualification and certification of NDT personnel.

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.

Bend testing, sometimes called flexure testing or transverse beam testing, measures the behavior of materials subjected to simple beam loading. It is commonly performed on relatively flexible materials such as polymers, wood, and composites.

flexure properties of cast iron and wood products.

detects the fracture of the test specimen

Canadian Council of Independent Laboratories

Tensile load (lb/in of width) required to cause separation of a 1-in. long metal-to-metal adhesive bond under the conditions set in ASTM D-1062.

Method for determining peel resistance of adhesive bond between a relatively flexible and a rigid material. (ASTM D-1781).

Software used by Construction Materials Testing firms to achieve operational efficiencies.

An alternate term for modulus of elasticity.

Construction Materials Engineering and Testing (CoMET) is a business committee for CoMET related discussions.

Ability of rubber to sustain repeated fluctuating compressive loads. 

Construction Materials Testing (CMT) primarily involves testing structural materials used to build new projects from the ground up, materials and components used to construct new additions or new components being added to an existing facility.

Digital function in the Model 8800 that maintains the amplitude of the command signal during changes in frequency of the signal.

Handset control.  Usually contains the controls for moving the crosshead up, down, clamping of the specimen (if there are pneumatic fixtures), and firing (starting the test).

The controller is the piece of hardware that controls the testing frame and any ancillary equipment in your testing system. Different controllers have different testing capabilities. Examples are the 3300, 4400, 5500, 5800 and 8800 controllers.

The Canadian Standards Association is a non-profit, non-governmental standardization organization. CSA standards are safety standards in Canada for electrical appliances, medical devices, machinery, equipment, etc.

Damping is the dissipation of energy in motion of any type.

End-to-end encryption is a security method that keeps your communications secure. With database encryption (either in transit or at rest), no one can read data as it travels over public channels / the internet. 

This is used to keep data safe from external cyberattacks and internal threats. Using a virtual private cloud provides data storage, servers, and production infrastructure, which ultimately keeps your data secure and available 24/7. 

The physical or geographic location of where data is stored. Leading providers will store data across multiple regions within the United States and Canada to satisfy compliance, security requirements, and reliable disaster recovery plans. 

Protocol of what and how data is stored, archived, backed up, and secured over time. Modern cloud systems will perform frequent backups every hour or less, and full backups of databases and systems at least daily. 

Energy required to deform a material a specified amount

Measure of the node-to-node bond strength of honeycomb core materials. It is equal to the tensile load applied to a honeycomb panel at fracture divided by its width times its thickness. (ASTM C-363)

Deep Foundations Institute

How a cloud-based solution supports or manages the quick recovery of your organization’s systems and data after a disaster.

When this geometry is selected, specimen diameter is required. The specimen cross section is calculated as the area of two circles. This affects all computations based on area, including stress (and stress control rates if entered prior to test start)

A change over time in an operating characteristic, such as a measurement value.

Strength of an adhesive joint determined immediately after drying or after a period of conditioning in a specified atmosphere. (ASTM D-2475)

Extent to which a material can sustain plastic deformation without rupture. Elongation and reduction of area are common indices of ductility.

Extent to which a material can sustain plastic deformation without rupture. Elongation and reduction of area are common indices of ductility.

Elongation at a specified load.

Elastic Hysteresis is the difference between the strain energy required to generate a given stress in a material, and the material's elastic energy at that stress. This energy is dissipated as internal friction (heat) in a material during one cycle of testing (loading and unloading).

Reduction in ductility due to physical or chemical changes.

Energy to failure is the energy that the specimen has absorbed up to the point of specimen failure. It is the area under the force-deflection curve from the test start to the failure point.

Energy absorbed by the specimen up to the point of maximum load. 

The change in specimen length divided by the original length. Refer to the definition for strain.

Load applied to a specimen in a tension or compression test divided by the cross-sectional area of the specimen. The change in cross-sectional area that occurs with increases and decreases in applied load, is disregarded in computing engineering stress. It is also called conventional stress.

Instrument to measure deformation of a test piece

Number of cycles of fluctuating stress and strain of a specified nature that a material will sustain before failure occurs. 

Ratio of fatigue strength of a specimen with no stress concentration to fatigue strength of a specimen with a notch or other stress raisers.

A relatively inert material added to a plastic to modify its strength, permanence, working properties, or other qualities or to lower cost.

In data acquisition, the number of points collected each second

Frequency response describes a device's ability to accurately reproduce, at its output, signals which appear at its input.

The term 'gauge length' refers to the part of a test specimen actually being measured for elongation during a tensile test.

GBA is the acronym for Geoprofessional Business Association. It serves geotechnical, environmental, and other geoprofessionals by giving them proven tools to achieve business success by confronting risk and optimizing performance. https://www.geoprofessional.org/

One who performs engineering, earth, and environmental services involving subsurface, surface, and ground-connected issues.

Stress is directly proportional to strain. Hooke's law assumes perfectly elastic behavior.

The closed curve representing the successive stress-strain status of the material during a cyclic deformation.

A test for determining toughness, or the tendency of a material to resist breaking on being subjected to sudden shock

The ability of a material to withstand shock loading.

The first peak in a force-time or force-deflection curve obtained during an instrumented impact test.

During an impact event, the point at which the first crack begins to form in the test specimen.

A test for determining toughness, or the tendency of a material to resist breaking on being subjected to sudden shock.

Method for determining ductility of metal wire.

Knot strength is a measure of a fiber's sensitivity to compressive and shear stresses.

Load At Specified Elongation.

Mass per unit length.

Plot of load versus corresponding deflection.

Loop-shaping is the process of tuning the control loop such that the movement of the crosshead closely follows the requirements of the command signal without any significant lag or overshoot.

Materials testing is the quantification of values associated with the properties of materials such as plastics, elastomers, metals, composites, and textiles. This testing is is performed by manufacturers, research institutions, civil engineers, and anyone else who needs to understand how a material responds to different forms of physical stress.

Materials testing is the quantification of values associated with the properties of materials such as plastics, elastomers, metals, composites, and textiles. This testing is is performed by manufacturers, research institutions, civil engineers, and anyone else who needs to understand how a material responds to different forms of physical stress.

The quality of achieving a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time.

Material take off  or MTO is a term used in engineering and construction, and refers to a list of materials with quantities and types (such as specific grades of steel) that are required to build a designed structure or item.

National Council of Structural Engineers Association

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Stress calculated on the basis of the net cross section of a specimen without taking into account the effect of geometric discontinuities such as holes, grooves, fillets, etc.

National Society of Professional Engineers

Stress imposed on a part in service.

Poisson's ratio is the ratio of expansion along one axis to contraction along the opposite axis when a material is subjected to tensile or compressive forces.

Stress that will cause a specified permanent deformation.

Plastic Strain Ratio

Method for measuring compressibility and recovery of gasket and seal materials. (ASTM F-36)

Nominal stress developed in a material at rupture.

Plot of stress (S) against the number of cycles (N) required to cause failure of similar specimens in a fatigue test.

An enclosure used to reduce the hazard from specimen debris during an impact test.

A group of material specimens. whose properties are studied and compared to gain statistical or quality assurance information. 

Secant modulus is one of several methods used to calculate modulus of elasticity, which is a measurement of a material's elasticity.

A tool steel component that actually strikes the specimen during an impact test.

Alternate term for peel strength.

The instantaneous rate of change of stress as a function of strain. It is the slope at any point on a stress-strain diagram.

Measure of the drawability of sheet metal.

Measure of the ability of sheet or film materials to resist tearing.

Time required to rupture specimen under constant stress and temperature in a creep test.

Torsion testing is a type of mechanical testing that evaluates the properties of materials or devices while under stress from angular displacement.

The amount of energy the specien absorbed during the complete test.  

A device which converts a physical property such as force, motion, temperature, and so on, into a proportional electrical signal which is used to measure the property.

Transverse strain is a derived channel. It is measured in a direction perpendicular to the applied load.

Instantaneous % of change in length of specimen in mechanical test.

Alternate term for elongation of material at rupture under tensile loading.

Highest engineering stress developed in material before rupture.

The velocity slowdown is the decrease in velocity of the striker from the beginning of the test to a given point, expressed as a percentage of impact velocity.

The process and objective evidence used to determine if the unit under test fulfills specified requirements. For example, ASTM and ISO standards define processes to be used for verification.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.

Breaking strength of paper saturated with water. Also, the strength of an adhesive bond after immersion in water.

The yield point of a material is a mechanical property commonly measured during materials testing. The yield point of a material occurs when the material transitions from elastic behavior - where removing the applied load will return the material to its original shape - to plastic behavior, where deformation is permanent.

In materials that exhibit a yield point, the Yield Point Elongation (YPE) is the difference between the elongation of the specimen at the start and at the finish of discontinuous yielding

It is the stress at which a material exhibits a specified permanent deformation and is a practical approximation of elastic limit.

Strain corresponding to yield strength of material. It is an indication of ductility.

A zone represents a single control segment in a test. A zone must be created for every change in speed, direction or control mode that is required during a test. A series of zones creates a test flow that the system follows when performing a test on a specimen.