Combining digital image correlation, passive thermography and acoustic emission to investigate damage initiation and propagation of out-of-plane fiber waviness

The currently limited capability to predict material failure in composite materials in general and in wavy composite layers specifically has led to high margins of safety for the design of composite structures. Thus, the full lightweight potential of this class of materials is left unused. To understand the complex failure behaviour of composite materials containing out-of-plane fiber waviness under compressive and tensile loading, digital image correlation, passive thermography and acoustic emission test methods are used to investigate damage initiation and propagation on specimen level. These methods deliver qualitative trends as well as quantitative metrics about the damage behavior in wavy CFRP materials. This data can be further used in constitutive laws to gain deeper insight and understanding in the material behavior.