After clamping, the mounting tab was cut at the central drill-hole, cf. Fig. 1(b). Although care was taken to avoid damaging the fibre bundle surface, three specimens were destroyed during this process. Each tensile test was conducted at a constant nominal strain rate of approximately 10−4 s−1 to achieve fracture
of the specimen within 20 s [42]. In the course of each test, the force F and the cross-head displacement u were recorded.