Oh, OK, that helps. Thanks for the image. Part of the point of the project is to see how the cracks propagate through the specimen in order to understand the failure, especially in the beams. The sides aren’t needed as much for the beams, but more for the cylinders. The shield would do well for protection, but if you don’t know when it’s going break, you will have it up blocking your sight and won’t be able to see the cracks. I’ve seen plexiglass sides like this perform well with cylinders that have attained 3000psi after 7 days; we probably only test them at half that strength.
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Yes if you need to see what’s happing, I think the Polycarbonate would be perfect.
Perhaps you could check with someone that reconditions/sells old golf carts. The windshields on some are made of Polycarbonate, but not all. Windshields from golf carts are typically made from acrylic, impact modified acrylic or polycarbonate. You could re-purpose something like that.
In natural light the Polycarbonate will have a blue edge (so says the internet).
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Thanks, I may look into that. I like reusing things for different purposes.