Fatigue damage evolution of fibre reinforced composites with Digital Image Correlation Analysis

Several studies on Digital Image Correlation technique allowed this methodology to be recognised in the last decade as a welloptimised tool for mechanical experimental measures, but much work is to be done to apply DIC based analyses on advanced applications, such as fatigue damage studies and composite materials failure investigations. DIC based methodology gives direct measure of the displacement field using a well defined formulation of matching the images of loaded and load free component, so that displacement vectors can be evaluated for a certain number of grid reference points on the analysed surface. In this work, the authors present the latest research with this method, and analyse fatigue damage phenomena in GFRC laminates under tensile fatigue load employing notched and notch-free specimens. Damage analysis based on optical DIC technique has been performed to detect the damaged areas on the specimen surface and to follow failure mechanisms during lifetime; the damage evolution in composites was performed monitoring two parameters: the local hysteresis area of stress strain cycles, the local stiffness variation. These parameters are evaluated on a grid by means of DIC strain measurements during the entire fatigue life showing encouraging results