Calorimetric Analysis of Dissipative Effects Associated with the Fatigue of GFRP Composites

Abstract

This paper deals with the calorimetric analysis of damage mechanisms of composite materials. Thermoelastic coupling source amplitude and the mean dissipation per cycle were derived from surface temperature field provided by an IR system. Cycling tests performed on glass/epoxy composites with initial defects underline that thermoelastic source distribution gives a good localization of the defect. During fatigue tests, mean dissipation per cycle increases when the delamination grows and seems to be a good indicator of the damage evolution.