Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Experimental analyses of SFRP material under static and fatigue

loading by means of thermographic and DIC techniques
V. Crupi, E. Guglielmino, G. Risitano*, F. Tavilla

degli Studi di Messina, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica, Chimica e Ingegneria Industriale, Contrada Di Dio (S. Agata), 98166 Messina, Italy
Universita

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The mechanical properties of injection moulded short glass fibre-reinforced polyamide composites was
Received 3 April 2014 investigated using experimental techniques. The Digital Image Correlation technique was applied during
Received in revised form the tensile tests in order to obtain the stressestrain curves and to identify the fracture location at the
3 February 2015
early stages of the tests. Moreover, the thermographic technique was used during the static tests in order
Accepted 16 March 2015
to identify the fracture zone and also during the fatigue tests, carried out at different frequencies, to
Available online 23 March 2015
study the temperature evolution of the specimen. A theoretical model was developed to analyze the
temperature evolution during the fatigue test and the effect of the test frequency. The aim of this study is
Keywords:
B. Fatigue
the application of the Thermographic Method for the fatigue assessment of short glass fibre-reinforced
B. Mechanical properties polyamide composites.
D. Mechanical testing © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Today, lightweight and low cost components can be obtained
with short fibre reinforced plastics. The recyclable nature of these
materials by comparison to thermoset matrixes composites is also
clearly appealing. Restricted a few years ago to automotive appli-
cations with limited mechanical requirements, these materials,
filled with glass fibres up to 50% in mass, are now used for struc-
tural components [1e3].
Polyamide-6,6 is known for its balance of strength, modulus and
chemical resistance. Both polyamide-6,6 and short E-glass fibre
reinforced polyamide-6,6 composite have many potential applica-
tions, such as stressed functional automotive parts (fuel injection
rails, steering column switches), safety parts in sports and leisure
(snowboard bindings) and other commercial products where creep
resistance, stiffness, resistance to dynamic fatigue are demanded in
addition to weight saving.
The design of short fibre reinforced plastic components for
structural applications requires an accurate knowledge of the
several factors affecting the tensile properties and the fatigue life-
time. The tensile strength and toughness/impact energy of short
fibre reinforced polymer composites would depend on a number of
factors such as fibre length, interfacial adhesion and properties of
components [4].
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 347 3209239.
E-mail address: giacomo.risitano@unime.it (G. Risitano).
Tensile tests were performed by Godara and Raabe [5] using
digital image correlation (DIC) for resolving the mechanical
behaviour and spatial distribution of the plastic microstrains in an
epoxy resin reinforced with 35 wt% short borosilicate glass fibres.
With the growing interest in lightweight structures, the short
fibres reinforced plastics (SFRP) are being used increasingly in load-
bearing applications, where the components experience cyclic
loads, so they are prone to fatigue failure in service. Thus, there is an
increasing attention on the design of SFRP components against
fatigue and a more detailed knowledge of their fatigue behavior is
needed. The fatigue mechanisms in short glass fibre reinforced
polyamide 6 were presented by Horst and Spoormaker [6]. The
fatigue tests of SFRP material are even more time consuming than
the tests required for metallic materials because the viscous ma-
terial exhibits a high heat build-up at high frequencies [3,7].
Jegou et al. [8] applied a heat build-up protocol on a short fibre
reinforced plastic, used for structural automotive applications
(PA66GF50), and predicted the fatigue properties from the tem-
perature measurements. A first approach, based on the tempera-
ture measurements, was proposed, providing a good correlation to
the fatigue data obtained according to the classic procedure.
Esmaeillou et al. [9] performed tensionetension fatigue tests on
SFRP composites at different applied maximum stress and analyzed
the specimens at both microscopic and macroscopic scale. The
temperature was measured during cyclic loading using an infrared
camera and also the progressive loss of stiffness was evaluated

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2015.03.052
1359-8368/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277
Nomenclature
c specific heat capacity at constant pressure [kJ/(kg K)]
f frequency [Hz]
t time [s]
tand loss factor
D fibre diameter [mm]
E* complex modulus of elasticity [MPa]
E0 storage modulus of elasticity [MPa]
E00 loss modulus of elasticity [MPa]
K slope of DTIeN curve [K]
Km thermoelastic coefficient [MPa1]
L fibre length [mm]
N number of cycles
Nas asymptotic number of cycles
N* characteristic number of cycles for composite materials
R stress ratio
T surface temperature [K]
W total work [J]
Wt thermal work [J]
a thermal linear expansion coefficient [K1]
b absorbed energy ratio
during the tests. Moreover, the effects of the frequency and of the
mean stress on the fatigue strength were evaluated.
In Ref. [10], Noda et al. studied the fatigue behaviour of short
glass-fibre reinforced nylon 66 under stress controlled fatigue tests
on the basis of the nonlinear dynamic viscoelasticity measure-
ments. In order to analyze the effect of nonlinear viscoelasticity on
the fatigue behavior, quantitative measurements of nonlinear
viscoelasticity, based on Fourier analysis, were carried out.
Sonsino et al. [3] investigated the fatigue strength behaviour of a
short-glass-fibre reinforced polyamide PA66GF35. The authors
emphasize the importance of monitoring the surface temperature
during fatigue testing for this kind of materials. Moreover, they note
that the surface temperature, reached by the specimen during a
fatigue test, must not exceed the value of 35  C in order to obtain
reliable values and not influenced by the possible structural
changes of the material.
Handa et al. [11] investigated the temperature evolution of the
specimens in PA66GF33 during fatigue tests, carried out at different
values of load ratio and test frequency (in the range between 5 and
50 Hz). They proposed a model which correlates the stabilization of
the surface temperature with the parameters E0 (storage modulus),
E00 (loss modulus) and tand (loss factor).
An energy-based approach was proposed by Meneghetti and
Quaresimin [12] to analyse the fatigue strength of plain and
notched specimens made of a short fibre-reinforced plastic weak-
ened by rounded notches.
Full-field measurement techniques were applied in Refs. [13,14]
for the damage investigation of composites.
The traditional methods of fatigue assessment of metallic and
composite materials are extremely time consuming. In order to
overcome the above-mentioned problems, an innovative approach
for fatigue assessment of materials and structures has been pro-
posed in Ref. [15]: the Thermographic Method (TM). The Thermo-
graphic Method, based on thermographic analyses, allows the rapid
determination of the high-cycle fatigue limit [15] and the SeN
curve [16] of materials, mechanical components and structural
details, using a very limited number of tests. There are a lot of pa-
pers [17e24] in literature, which confirm that the TM has been
already used successfully to predict the fatigue strength of metals,
269
d phase shift [rad]
ε strain
ε0 strain amplitude
εf strain failure
r density [kg/m3]
s stress [MPa]
s1,s2,s3 principal stresses [MPa]
smax maximum stress [MPa]
smin minimum stress [MPa]
s0 stress amplitude [MPa]
sR tensile strength [MPa]
u angular velocity [rad/s]
Dt* characteristic time increment [s]
DTs_exp experimental temperature increment during static test
[K]
DTs_th theoretical temperature increment during static test
[K]
DTd temperature increment during fatigue test [K]
DTas asymptotic temperature increment during fatigue test
[K]
DT* characteristic temperature increment during fatigue
test of composite materials [K]
and also the authors have a strong background in this filed. They
applied the TM for the fatigue assessment of steels in low cycle [25]
high cycle [26], and very high cycle [27] fatigue regimes and also for
the fatigue analysis of metallic mechanical components [16].
This study is the first step of a research aimed at applying the TM
for the fatigue assessment of composite materials, obviously taking
into account that the composites have different and more complex
fatigue mechanisms respect to metallic materials.
A review of the scientific results in literature, related to the
application of the thermographic techniques to composite mate-
rials have been presented by Vergani et al. [28].
De Monte et al. [29] investigated the influence of temperature,
thickness and fibre orientation on the off-axis behaviour of
PA66GF35 under cyclic loading.
The same material was considered in this study. Tensile tests
were carried out on specimens using a hydraulic testing machine
and DIC and IR Camera have been used during all tests. Stress vs
strain curves and temperature evolution associated to the applied
tensile stress were determined. The trend of the surface tempera-
ture of the specimen during fatigue tests was analyzed at different
test frequencies. The stress range, applied during the fatigue tests,
was maintained at a constant level below the fatigue limit in order
to obtain an indication on the amount of energy, which is generated
only by internal material damping.
2. Static tests
2.1. Material and methods
The material used in this study is a commercial polyamide-6,6
containing 35 wt% glass-fibres, designed as PA66GF35. Table 1
shows the mechanical and physical properties of the material;
the values are extracted from the manufacturer's datasheet. The
specimens were made by injection moulding. Granulated com-
mercial materials were held in a drying furnace at 60  C ÷ 80  C for
24 h prior to injection. For all blends, the injection parameters were
maintained constant. Dog bone specimens (Fig. 1) were injection
moulded (type 1A of the ISO 527-2:1993 standard) with processing
conditions based on ISO 294-1:1996 and ISO 1873-2:2007. The
270 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277

Table 1
Mechanical and physical properties of PA66GF35 according to the manufacturer's datasheet.

Fibre diameter Fibre length Density Specific heat capacity Thermal linear expansion coefficient Tensile strength Elastic modulus Failure strain

D [mm] L [mm] r [kg/m3] c [kJ/(kg K)] a [1/K] sR [MPa] E [MPa] εf [%]

10 280 1410 1,670 2,50E-05 150 ÷ 210 8700 ÷ 11400 3÷4

specimens were machined out from injection-moulded plates at

orientation angle of 0 . Fibres have a nominal diameter of 10 mm Table 2
Parameters used for DIC analysis.
and an average length of approximately 280 mm.
The static tests were carried out using a servo-hydraulic load Project parameters: Facet
machine at a crosshead rate equal to 2 mm/min with constant Facet shape rectangular
Facet size 12 pixels
relative humidity and temperature. The tensile tests were carried
Facet step 10 pixels
out on 10 specimens using a hydraulic testing machine (MTS 810) Project parameters: Strain
and the DIC technique, which uses a mathematical correlation to Computation size 3
analyse digital images of samples subjected to mechanical strain, Validity quote 55%
Strain computation method Total
has been used during all tests. ARAMIS 3D 2M LT system was used
Stage parameters
to analyze the strain pattern of the specimen surface. Two cameras Accuracy 0.04 pixels
with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixel were used. The system ac- Iteration limit Enabled
curacy for the strain measurement is about 104, while the higher Residual gray scale level 20 levels
acquisition frequency is 12 Hz. The main parameters related to the Intersection deviation 0.3
Recording image sequence
characteristics of the facet, the method of calculation and the mode
Simple measuring mode 1 image/s
of acquisition of images are reported in Table 2.
In a second time, the authors have focused their attention on the
influence of the setting parameters by performing an analysis of the
For linear isotropic homogeneous material and in adiabatic
optimization of the post-processing phase. At the conclusion of this
condition, the variation of temperature during the phase I of the
study it was found that it is possible to optimize the analysis using
static test is proportional to the variation of the sum of the principal
higher values for the “facet size” (larger facets) and lower values for
stresses [30]:
the “facet step” (increasing the overlapping area). The study
focused on the shape of the facet. The result was that the rectan-
a
gular shape is the optimal choice. DTs ¼  T $ðs þ s2 þ s3 Þ (1)
Moreover, during tensile tests, an IR camera FLIR SC® 3000 was r$c 0 1
used and the specimens were coated with black paint.
for uniaxial stress state, it follows:

2.2. Theory/calculation
As reported in Ref. [28], there are many studies in literature on
the thermal response of composites during static tests. During
static tests of common engineering metals, the temperature evo-
lution on the specimen surface, detected by means of an infrared
camera, is characterized by three phases: an initial approximately
linear decrease due to the thermoelastic effect (phase I), then the
temperature deviates from linearity until a minimum (phase II) and
a very high further temperature increment until the failure (phase
III). A typical DTeN curve, obtained by a constant-amplitude fatigue
test, is shown in Fig. 2.
a
DTs ¼  T $s ¼ Km T0 $s1 (2)
r$c 0 1
where Km is the thermoelastic coefficient.
Clienti et al. [31] for the first time correlated the first deviation
from linearity, which corresponds to the end of the phase I, to the
fatigue limit of plastic materials. As reported in Ref. [32] “the end of
the thermoelastic phase could be related, also for composites, to a
stress value sD, which can identify the initiation of a different kind
of damage”. This was observed for basalt [32] and glass [33] fibre
reinforced composites. The SEM analyses on glass-fibre reinforced
specimens, tested at various load levels, and the measurements of

Fig. 1. Representation of specimen with dimensions in mm.

 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277
Fig. 2. Theoretical trends of stress and temperature during a static tensile test.
stiffness reduction in interrupted static tests, characterized by two
loadingeunloading cycles, confirmed that the defects do not
propagate and the global temperature trend during tensile static
tests is about linear until the applied stress in lower than sD [34].
2.3. Results & discussion
Since the DIC technique is able to estimate the displacement
field in each region of the specimen, it was applied during the
tensile tests in order to obtain the stressestrain curves and to
detect the failure zone at the early stages of the tests. Fig. 3 shows
an application of DIC technique during a tensile test. In the figure,
some images, obtained by DIC analysis during the tests, are showed
along with the stress versus strain curve in order to highlight the
evolution of strain in the fracture zone. Analysing Fig. 3, it can be
noted that even at low strain (about 0.4%) it's possible to identify
Fig. 3. Stressestrain curve and DIC images for a static tensile test.
271
the fracture zone. For all stage point, the evolution of strain is
constant and gives a good prediction of the failure zone.
During some tensile tests, the temperature of the specimen
surface was detected by means of an IR camera. Fig. 4 shows the
pattern of the applied stress and the experimental temperature
increment DTS_exp, detected by means of the themocamera, during a
tensile test and some infrared images of the specimen. Comparing
the images obtained by thermographic (Fig. 4) and DIC (Fig. 3)
techniques, it is clearly evident that the infrared analysis gives less
accurate results for the prediction of the fracture zone than those
obtained by means of DIC technique. After a nonlinear initial part of
the DTS_expet curve, probably due to the stabilization of the grips of
the testing machine, an approximately linear trend is clearly visible
in the curve and its slope corresponds to the thermoelastic coeffi-
cient Km of eq. (2). A linear regression of this part of the DTS_expet
curve, relative to the phase I, was performed in order to include the
maximum number of thermal data, which allows to get the highest
correlation coefficient (R2 ¼ 0.9618). In the same graph it is re-
ported the theoretical temperature increment DTS_th, obtained
applying eq. (1). The values of the parameters (density r, specific
heat capacity at constant pressure c and linear expansion coeffi-
cient a), used for eq. (1), are reported in Table 1. For the investigated
material, the DTS_expet curve has a different trend respect to the
linear trend of the theoretical DTS_thet curve when the applied
stress is about 55 MPa as shown in Fig. 4.
Sonsino et al. [3] obtained by experimental tests that the value
of fatigue strength at Nf ¼ 1E6 cycles (R ¼ 1) for PA66GF35 (the
same material investigated in this study) is 55 MPa. A similar result
of fatigue strength at Nf ¼ 1E6 cycles (R ¼ 1) was obtained by De
Monte et al. [29] for PA66GF35 specimens with thickness t ¼ 3 mm.
3. Fatigue tests
3.1. Material and methods
The specimens, investigated under fatigue loading, have the
same geometry (Fig. 1) of those used for the static tests and are
272 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277

Fig. 4. (a) Experimental trends of stress and temperature and IR images during a static tensile test; (b) Temperature evolution versus applied stress levels during a static tensile test.

made from the same material by injection moulding as reported in
paragraph 2.1.
The trend of the surface temperature of the specimen was
analyzed at five different test frequencies (1,3,6,9 and 12 Hz). The
stress range, applied during the tests, was maintained at a constant
level (20 MPa) below the fatigue limit [3] in order to obtain an
indication on the energy amount, which is generated only by
internal material damping due to the viscoelastic nature of the
material itself.
For fatigue tests, the following parameters were used:
maximum stress smax ¼ 20 MPa; load ratio R ¼ 1; test frequency
f ¼ 1,3,6,9 and 12 Hz.
As previously mentioned, the specimens were coated with black
paint and during the test the surface temperature of the specimen
 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277 273

was monitored with an IR camera. When the surface temperature

of the specimen got to the stabilization, the test was stopped. s0 eiðutþdÞ

*

id
E* ¼ ¼ E e (5)
ε0 eiut
The complex modulus can be split up into a real component E0
3.2. Theory/calculation and the imaginary component E00 :
00
During HCF tests of common engineering metals, the tempera- E* ¼ E0 þ jE (6)
ture evolution on the specimen surface, detected by means of an
infrared camera, is characterized by three phases when the spec- The ratio between E0 and E00 gives the loss factor:
imen is cyclically loaded above its fatigue limit: an initial rapid
E0
increment (phase I), a plateau region (phase II), then a very high tan d ¼ 00 (7)
further temperature increment until the failure (phase III). The E
same trend was observed for metals by Crupi et al. in LCF [25] and The integration of stress over strain of one loading cycle gives
VHCF [27] regimes. the total work W:
For that concerns the SFRP composite materials, the tempera- Z
ture evolution during the fatigue tests is different [11]; after an W¼ sdε (8)
initial linear increment (phase I), there is another linear increment
with lower slope (phase II). The theoretical DTdeN curves, obtained
for steel and SFRP composite during constant-amplitude fatigue which finally leads to a relation between the total work on the time
tests, are shown in Fig. 5. The intersection between the two linear and loss factor expressed by:
trend gives the values of cycle number and temperature increment,
vW
defined in Fig. 5 as N* and DT*, which is not exactly an asymptotic ¼ p$f $s0 $ε0 $sin d (9)
vt
temperature increment.
Following the work of Chandra et al. [35], the main mechanisms Rittel et al. [36] had showed that only a part of the absorbed
that produce damping effects in SFRP are: the viscoelastic nature of energy W converts to thermal energy Wt. This part of absorbed
the polymer matrix, damping due to interphase effects between energy is expressed by the factor b:
fibre and matrix, damping due to damage and thermoelastic 
damping. The total work W being absorbed by the material during vWt vW
b¼ (10)
one cycle can be determined from the hysteresis in the stresse- vt vt
strain curve.
Under adiabatic condition, the thermal energy rate causes the
Damping causes a part of the mechanical work to be irreversibly
material to heat up with the temperature rate:
absorbed by the material during a fatigue test (loading and
unloading process). This finally heats up the material, which can be vT 1 vWt
measured by infrared thermography or other system instruments. ¼ (11)
vt r$c vt
Under sinusoidal loading, the stress s and the strain ε (they are
functions of the time) can be written as: where r is the density and c the specific heat capacity of the
material.
s ¼ s0 eiðutþdÞ (3) Thus, the relationship between temperature and frequency is:

vT p
ε ¼ ε0 eiut (4) ¼b f $s0 $ε0 $sin d (12)
vt r$c
where s0 and ε0 are the stress and strain amplitudes, u is the being the number of fatigue cycles N related to frequency f and
angular velocity, d is the phase shift and t is the time. time t:
The complex modulus E* is the ratio between s and ε:
vT p
¼b $s $ε $sin d (13)
vN r$c 0 0
Then, a new parameter K can be introduced:

p
K¼b s $ε $sin d (14)
r$c 0 0
According to the definition of the parameters N* and DT*, shown
in Fig. 5, it follows:

DT* ¼ K$N* (15)

3.3. Results & discussion

According to the developed model, the characteristic thermal

parameter is DT*. Fig. 6 shows the experimental and theoretical
DTdeN curves necessary to define the values of N* and DT*. The
temperature trend of test performed at 1 Hz is not reported because
Fig. 5. Theoretical DTdeN curves for steel and SFRP composite during a fatigue test. the value of DTd is very low. The theoretical curves were computed
274 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277

Fig. 6. Experimental and theoretical DTdeN curves during the fatigue tests.

Table 4
for each test by means of a linear interpolation of the data relative
Theoretical and experimental values of K [K].
to the two phases of the DTdeN curves (Fig. 5), obtaining the values
of N* and DT* and the slope K. Moreover, a theoretical value of the Theoretical value Experimental value

slope K was calculated using eq. (14). The values of the parameters f ¼ 3 Hz f ¼ 6 Hz f ¼ 9 Hz f ¼ 12 Hz
(density r, specific heat capacity at constant pressure c and absor- 0.00060 0.00058 0.00065 0.00065 0.00065
bed energy factor b), used for eq. (15), are reported in Tables 1 and 3 Deviation [%] 4.7% 7.9% 7.4% 8.1%
[11]. Table 4 shows the comparison between the theoretical and
experimental values of K. A good achievement was obtained with a
percentage deviation lower than 8%. The results confirm that, as In Ref. [37], Crupi developed a theoretical model able to describe
show in Fig. 6, the slope K is almost the same for all the tests carried the temperature evolution during the phase I and phase II of the
out at different frequencies. Table 5 reports the values of N* and DT*. fatigue life:
The value of DT* increases with increasing the test frequency. Fig. 7
shows the correlation between DT* values and the corresponding f  
DTd ¼ DTas $ 1  e t
N
(16)
values; as show in equation (12) and in Ref. [7], DT* is related to the
test frequency f by means of a linear relationship. These results
confirm the validity of the theoretical model applied to SFRP ma- where t is a constant; if N is t then DTd is 0.63 DTas and if N is 4t
Dt * ¼N * , then DTd is 0.98 DTas. The model was applied successfully to steels
terials. Moreover, the values of time f
required to reach the
in Ref. [37]. In order to apply eq. (16) on SFRP materials, the pa-
temperature increment DT* for each test, are reported in Table 5. It rameters N* and DT* were considered instead of Nas and DTas and it
is interesting to note that Dt* has an almost constant value for all was necessary to find the correct convergence criterion as a func-
the tests performed at different frequencies but at the same envi- tion of the relationship between N* and t parameters. Fig. 8 shows
ronmental testing conditions. the experimental DTdeN curve and other five curves, obtained

Table 3
Mechanical properties of PA66GF35 [11].

Absorbed energy ratio b [/] Storage modulus of elasticity E0 [MPa] Loss modulus of elasticity E00 [MPa] Loss factor tand [/]

0.15 5000 340 0.068

 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277 275

Table 5
Characteristic values considered in the theoretical approach.

Test frequency Characteristic temperature increment Characteristic number of cycles Characteristic time increment

f [Hz] DT* [ C] N* [/] Dt* ¼ N*/f [s]

3 0.55 1000 333
6 1.20 2000 333
9 2.10 3000 333
12 2.50 4000 333

Fig. 7. Correlation between the temperature increment DT* and the frequency f with some IR images.

considering different values of the ratio between N* and t. By the Combining and developing the equation (16) with equation (15),
analysis of the results, it was found that the best convergence cri- it follows:
terion is obtained when t ¼ 1.5,N*. Applying this criterion for all
tests (Fig. 9), a good agreement between the experimental data and  
DTd ¼ K$N * $ 1  e t
N
(17)
the theoretical model proposed by Crupi [37] is obtained.
Considering eq. (15) and t ¼ 1.5,N*, the equation (17) can be
written as:

p  
 N
DTd ¼ b s0 $ε0 $sin d$N * $ 1  e 1;5$N* (18)
r$c
Considering Dt* a constant value for all frequencies:

N* ¼ Dt * $f (19)

the equation (18) can be written as:

 
p  N
DTd ¼ b s0 $ε0 $sin d$Dt * $f $ 1  e 1:5$Dt $f (20)
r$c

which describes the temperature evolution during the fatigue life

of the investigated SFRP materials as a function of the material's
properties (b, r, c, sin d), of the load condition (s0, ε0, f) and char-
Fig. 8. Experimental data and DTdeN curves, predicted considering different values of acteristic time increment Dt*. The temperature evolution of a
the ratio between N* and t. PA66GF35 composite, subjected to different fatigue loading
276 V. Crupi et al. / Composites Part B 77 (2015) 268e277
Fig. 9. Experimental data and DTdeN curves, predicted using the theoretical model proposed by Crupi [37].
conditions (stress amplitude, frequency), can be predicted by
means of the developed eq. (20), knowing the constant value of Dt*.
4. Conclusions
Digital image correlation and thermography techniques were
applied to PA66GF35 composite during static and fatigue tests. The
main points of this experimental investigation are the following:
 DIC technique was able to predict the fracture zone already at
the first stage of the static tensile tests even at low values of
strain and to give more accurate results for the identification of
the fracture zone than the IR analyses;
 Thermographic Method was applied to PA66GF35 composite
during static tensile test;
 a correlation between a characteristic thermal parameter DT*
and test frequency f has been proposed;
 a theoretical approach was developed to predict the tempera-
ture evolution of SFRP composite during fatigue tests carried out
at different loading conditions (stress, frequency).
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