Determination of the Properties of Composite Materials Thanks to Digital Image Correlation Measurements

Designing composite structures for civil aircrafts necessitates a better understanding of the damage and failure mechanisms occurring in these components through experimental test campaigns and associated numerical simulations. These experimental tests have been performed at Onera using different classical measurement techniques (LVDT sensor, strain gauges…) and digital image correlation (DIC). The additional information provided by DIC allows (i) to validate the boundary conditions of the tests, (ii) to cross-check the measurements with other techniques, (iii) to improve the understanding of the physical mechanisms and (iv) to validate the predictions of the finite element simulations.