Flexural Strength of Materials Versus Profiles

In 2004-2005 American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) had arranged an independent testing of commercial composite boards provided by six manufacturers. All boards were tested in the same conditions and using the same equipment and the same operator, and data are shown in Table 7.14. 

It is interesting that one of the strongest materials (B) in Table 7.14 turned out to be one of the weakest deck profile (or the weakest one, considering the error margins). It can be a result of an inconsistency of the final product across the profile (voids, areas of different density). 

TABLE 7.14 Flexural strength of materials and profiles of six commercial composite boards 

The boards were tested according to ASTM D 790 (materials center-point load) and ASTM D 6109 (profiles third-point load). The specimens were 5 by Vi by Vi (materials) and as is (profiles). The support span was 4.0 (materials) and 16 (profiles), and the crosshead speed was 0.110 in./min (materials). Five samples (materials) and 15 samples (profiles) of each product were tested. Boards were provided by six different commercial manufacturers. The order of materials in the table is from higher to lower flex strength values of materials and does not indicate the particular manufacturer. 

TABLE 7.15 Flexural strength for a series of different profiles made from the same composite material 

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