Test design and engineering is an important aspect of bringing any part into production. For research (either academic or company R & D), testing is often the means by which significant engineering advances are made.

After the preliminary design and manufacturing of a composite part is complete, it is common to perform testing to see if its performance agrees with predictions. This is significantly more common with composites than with metallic structure, and is done to discover any "surprises" which may occur in the structural response. The results of the testing often provide important information for necessary or desired design modifications.

The test equipment consists of several types of devices used to apply controlled tensile loads to the hat panel. The equipment is capable of varying the applied load and accurately measuring the forces, strains, and elongations applied to the specimen.

The tensile testing equipment used to test the hat panel is comprised of the following:

1. The testing machine.
This applies a uniform compressive load on the hat panel. The whole procedure is computer controlled, so that the person conducting the test may concentrate on the behavior of the hat panel.

2. The data acquistion system.
This records the load, displacement, and strains and plots them on a graph so that the person running the test can easily intrepret the data. This may be done during the test and/or after the test is complete.

After testing, the experimental and predicted results are compared. If they do not agree, the analysis, design, or both may need to be improved.