What do you want to test?

Get married and take a before and after picture.

Back in the Stone Age (1980) I attempted to do the same project for my 3rd year mechanical eng project. Since all the compression/tension testing machines were being used by my professors for outside work, I had to come up with a cheap alternative. I purchased a used motorcycle engine (single piston) for about $50 and rebuilt it (removed the head so that cylinders were exposed, and so the cylinder moved up and down in the bore freely). I then machined a sample jig to hold my test pieces and mount on top of the block wth the head bolt threads. Instead of hooking up a gas tank and lines, I used an electric motor to turn the crankshaft and with a large potentiometer to control the speed of the electric motor. I then set the potentiometer at 1/4 turn, 1/2 turn, 3/4 turn and at full turn and used a timing light at each step to get the rpm my motorcycle engine was turning at. This can then be used to calculate the force with which your piston will be hitting your sample. I also measured the mass of the piston and connecting rod assembly while rebuilding the engine. Once I calibrated the engine I clamped in test pieces and start breaking stuff. From these experiments I was able to generate a Wohler diagram for fatigue wear on my test pieces.

Good Luck and let me know if you find a better way.

INCREDIBLE SPELLING..You are in your final year of Mechanical Engineering and you can't spell "mechanical" and you can't spell "college" !!!!

Anyway, to answer your technical question......there is a flex tester for thin materials called an MIT flex tester. It flexes the specimens about 180 degrees , first left then right until it fails. The number of cycles is recorded as the only data point. You can also flex comparitive samples a set number of cycles (1000, 10,000 etc) and remove the samples to perform a straight Instron tensile test to see how much strength is retained after flexing

This suggestion somewhat depends upon knowing what "MIT" stands for

comparative

2 entries found for comparative.
To select an entry, click on it. comparative[1,adjective]comparative[2,noun] Main Entry: ¹com·par·a·tive
Pronunciation: -tiv
Function: adjective
1 : of, relating to, or constituting the degree of comparison in a language that denotes increase in the quality, quantity, or relation expressed by an adjective or adverb
2 : considered as if in comparison to something else as a standard not quite attained : RELATIVE <a comparative stranger>
3 : characterized by systematic comparison especially of likenesses and dissimilarities <comparative anatomy>
- com·par·a·tive·ly adverb
- com·par·a·tive·ness noun

FYI Idiot - next time use spell check

I don't like people who bark at someone for doing something wrong when they do it wrong themselves. If you don't want to help, DON'T POST!

I'll use hydraulic to cycle the test piece. You can control force/pressure on the test piece. Then use a simple switch to do counts. You should set the switch up so if the test piece failed, it won't hit the switch and count will stop. Of course you'll have to work out the details.

Just use Firefox and spell check before you post.

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