Abstract:The paper presents a summary of the key technologies for the design of a cruciform biaxial tensile machine and specimen.The Abaqus software was resoted to a comparative study of the stress distribution and plastic strain range of three classic specimens under the same loading ratio and different loading ratios. Study results show that the movement of the central region of specimen under control is a guarantee; A minimized extra bending momentum is a need; and a cooperation of loadings for different directions is a must. To increrase the plastic deformation in the central region and enlarge the uniform stress field range as well as to diminish the stress concentration are critical for the design of a specimen.Of the three specimens being analyzed, Kuwabara specimen is of the worse stress uniformity; the Mankinde specimen is of the best stress uniformity; Müller specimen is of the least stress concentration and the smallest plastic deformation region. And the plastic deformation in Müller specimen is more sensitive to the change of the load ratio.