Impact Fatigue Damage in CFRP

IMPACT FATIGUE DAMAGE IN CFRP
by
Isabella Mendoza
© Copyright by Isabella Mendoza, 2023
All Rights Reserved
A thesis submitted to the Faculty and the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School of
Mines in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(Mechanical Engineering).
Golden, Colorado
Date
Signed:
Isabella Mendoza
Signed:
Dr. Leslie Lamberson

Thesis Advisor
Golden, Colorado
Date
Signed:
Dr. Carl Frick

Professor and Department Head
Department of Mechanical Engineering
ii
ABSTRACT
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are widely used in military,

marine, and aerospace applications due to their high specific strength and improved
oxidation resistance compared to metals. However, given their layered structure, CFRP
laminates are especially vulnerable to transverse loading. In particular, low-energy impacts
that result in barely visible impact damage (BVID) can threaten the laminate structural
integrity and are hard to detect. The polymer matrix is also especially susceptible to
environmental conditions such as humidity and moisture uptake. To date, no study is
currently available on the combined effects of environmental conditioning and repetitive
impact loading on CFRPs. Commonly used techniques for evaluating impact damage
typically rely on non-kinematic measurement techniques or destructive mechanical tests,
contributing to high material and equipment costs. The current work addresses these
concerns by investigating the combined effect of impact fatigue and environmental
conditioning on CFRPs through non-destructive full-field kinematic measurements.
Low-cycle repetitive impacts at 2 J were performed on unidirectional, quasi-isotropic
CFRPs. Combined with the virtual fields method (VFM), full-field optical techniques of
infrared deflectometry and digital image correlation (DIC) were employed to map gaps in
local mechanical equilibrium on post-impacted specimens under a static bending load. A
new damage parameter accounting for the severity and shape measured via the equilibrium
gap (EG) maps was developed. Results indicate that damage increased two to five-fold
after approximately 1% moisture absorption compared to ambient specimens and by a full
order of magnitude after approximately 2% absorption. These findings demonstrate that
by leveraging a VFM inverse method based on full-field kinematic measurements and
constitutive parameter identification, the detrimental BVID of environmental conditioning
on CFRPs subjected to impact fatigue loads can be quantitatively assessed.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
LIST OF SYMBOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.2 Damage in Composite Laminates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.3 Impact Damage Characterization Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.4 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Evaluation . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.5 The Virtual Fields Method (VFM) and Equilibrium Gap (EG)
Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Project Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER 2 INVESTIGATION OF FULL-FIELD OPTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR

KINEMATIC MEASUREMENTS ON CFRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.1 Digital Image Correlation (DIC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
iv
2.1.2 Thermoelasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.3 Grid Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.4 Visible Light and Infrared (IR) Deflectometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 Numerical and Experimental Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.1 Numerical Modeling of Full-field Strain Measurements . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.2 Application of IR Deflectometry for Experimental Strain

Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.3 Efforts for Improving the IR Deflectometry Technique . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER 3 EVALUATION OF LOW-CYCLE IMPACT FATIGUE DAMAGE IN

CFRP USING THE VIRTUAL FIELDS METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1.1 Definitions and Terminology in Impact Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.1.2 Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 Experimental Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.1 Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.2 Impact Fatigue Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.3 Static Bending Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 Application of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM) to Damage Identification . . 33
3.3.1 Derivation of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.2 Formulation of the Equilibrium Gap (EG) Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.3 Selection of Virtual Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.4 Processing Parameter Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4 Post-Mortem Damage Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
v
3.4.1 Use of Full-Field Metrology and VFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.2 Validation with X-Ray Computed Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
CHAPTER 4 COMBINED IMPACT FATIGUE AND ENVIRONMENTAL

CONDITIONING RESPONSE OF CFRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.1.1 Impact Response of CFRP After Environmental Conditioning . . . . . 52
4.1.2 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Detection . . . . . . . 54
4.1.3 The Virtual Fields Method (VFM) and Equilibrium Gap (EG)
Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.2 Experimental Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.1 Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.2 Environmental Conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.3 Impact Fatigue Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.4 Post-Impact Bending with Digital Image Correlation (DIC) . . . . . . . 58
4.2.5 Using VFM as a Damage Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.6 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact (CAI) ASTM Tests . . . . . . . 61
4.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.1 Hygrothermal Degradation of Specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.2 Full-Field Kinematics and VFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.3 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact ASTM Tests . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
vi
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements of CFRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 Damage Tolerancing for Impact Fatigue and Environmental Conditioning . . . 78
5.3 Publications and Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
APPENDIX A PERMISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
APPENDIX B SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
B.1 Full-Field Strain Measurements from DIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
B.2 Equilibrium Gap Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
B.3 Parameter Optimization for DIC Strain Window (SW) and EG Control
Window (CW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Low-velocity vs. high-velocity impact response of composite laminate

plate, taken from Bibo and Hogg [7]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Figure 1.2 Illustration of Case I and II for impact fatigue, adapted from Sadighi
and Alderliesten [6]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Figure 1.3 Ultrasound C-scan of internal delaminations in CFRP after single

impact at 15 J, taken from Devivier et al. [18]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Figure 1.4 Thermal image of damaged CFRP specimen after heating up to 40◦ C
(left) and further analysis with MATLAB software to better visualize
thermal gradients (right). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Figure 1.5 XCT volumetric reconstruction of impact fatigued CFRP specimens. . . .6
Figure 2.1 Deformation tracking of randomized speckle pattern through digital

image correlation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 2.2 Printed grid on PMMA specimen with a grid pitch of 0.9 mm. . . . . . . 13
Figure 2.3 Schematic of the deflectometry process to extract surface strains while
the specimen is loaded in bending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figure 2.4 Schematic of the deflectometry process to extract surface strains while
the specimen is loaded in bending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure 2.5 ABAQUS CAE mesh model (left) and prescribed boundary conditions
and loading configuration (right). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Figure 2.6 Longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strain fields produced from
finite element model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Figure 2.7 Experimental set-up for IR deflectometry bending tests. . . . . . . . . . . 19
Figure 2.8 At rest and deflected images of grid reflection in as-received CFRP
plate surface, with call-out of grid reflection squares and histogram of
grayscale values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
viii
Figure 2.9 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending in the center of the plate
with resulting slope maps (top) and comparison of experimental
(middle) vs. numerical strain maps in millistrain (bottom). . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 2.10 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending towards the bottom edge of
the plate with resulting slope maps (top) and comparison of
experimental (middle) vs. numerical strain maps in millistrain (bottom). . 21
Figure 2.11 At rest and deflected images of grid reflection in as-received CFRP
plate surface, with call-out of grid reflection squares and histogram of
grayscale values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Figure 2.12 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending towards the right edge of the
plate with resulting slope maps (top) and resulting experimental strain
maps in millistrain (bottom). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Figure 3.1 A graphical representation of the experimental and analytical processes

performed in this study. Impact fatigue experiments are described in
Sec. 3.2.2, stereo-DIC in Sec. 3.2.3, VFM in Sec. 3.3, and XCT in
Sec. 3.4.2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 3.2 Dynamic fatigue device used for impact fatigue experiments (above)
and close-up schematic of clamped region (below). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Figure 3.3 Stereo-DIC set-up and bending rig with camera view (above) and
schematic for bending test loading configuration (below). . . . . . . . . . 32
Figure 3.4 Visualization of isotropic and anisotropic fields (above) and their effect
on calculated EG maps (below) on post-mortem specimen after 2000
impact cycles. The blue regions represent values of N aN where the
known location of the point load was applied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Figure 3.5 Parametric sweep for EG calculation with varying strain window and
control window size, with optimal signal-to-noise ratio observed at a
strain window of 5 and control window size of 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Figure 3.6 Evolution of post-mortem longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear

strain maps in millistrain (mε) under static bending load extracted
using stereo-DIC after increasing impact fatigue cycles with a strain
window of 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure 3.7 Absolute equilibrium gap (EG) maps obtained after increasing
numbers of impact fatigue cycles. Noise floor threshold of 0.356 is
based on histograms shown in Fig. 3.5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
ix
Figure 3.8 Corresponding histograms of calculated absolute EG values from EG
maps seen in Fig. 3.7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Figure 3.9 Ply interface XCT images after Nf = 1000 (top), Nf = 1400 (center)
and Nf = 2000 (bottom). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Figure 3.10 Cross-sectional view of XCT images for sample under increasing
impact cycles, with call-outs for regions with transverse cracks (TC),
delaminations (DL) and flexural failure (FF). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 4.1 Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer plate as-received from RockWest

Composites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Figure 4.2 Environmental conditioning pot filled with distilled water heated to a
temperature of 70◦ C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Figure 4.3 Schematic of boundary conditions and loading configuration for impact
fatigue loading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Figure 4.4 Schematic of boundary conditions and loading configuration for impact
fatigue loading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Figure 4.5 Virtual fields selected for equilibrium gap analysis, with u∗y = 0. . . . . . 60
Figure 4.6 Experimental set-up for compression-after-impact (CAI) tests. . . . . . . 61
Figure 4.7 Moisture absorption by wt. %, with call-outs for absorption values at
designated short-term soaked samples, long-term soaked samples, and
maximum recorded water uptake (above) and absorption data on a
log-log scale, with linear trendline fit (below). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 4.8 Subsurface delaminations resulting from long-term moisture absorption. . 64
Figure 4.9 XCT scans of long-term soaked sample between first and second ply,
with call-outs of subsurface separation between plies. These images
were taken between the outermost ply and the adjacent ply. . . . . . . . 64
Figure 4.10 Longitudinal, transverse, and in-plane shear strain maps (in
millistrain) for ambient, short-term soaked and long-term soaked
specimens after Nf = 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Figure 4.11 Equilibrium gap maps for all conditions and impact cycles, with
ambient EG maps taken from Chapter 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
x
Figure 4.12 Maximum |EG| values for all specimens with resolvable damage across
all environmental conditions and impact cycles tested. . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Figure 4.13 Damage parameter, D for ambient and soaked specimens at designated
impact cycles of interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Figure 4.14 XCT side-view of long-term soaked specimen after 500 impact cycles. . . 68
Figure 4.15 Three-dimensional XCT reconstruction of long-term soaked specimens

(all with moisture absorption of ≥1.93%). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Figure 4.16 Post-mortem CAI ambient specimens subjected after various impact
loading cycles. Red circle shows the impact site. Orange dashed line
represents failure location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Figure 4.17 CAI damage progression at the impact site for long-term soaked
sample after Nf = 1400. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Figure B.1 DIC strain fields for all ambient specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Figure B.2 DIC strain field for short-soaked sample after Nf = 2000 . . . . . . . . . 96
Figure B.3 DIC strain field for short-soaked sample after Nf = 2000 . . . . . . . . . 96
Figure B.4 DIC strain field for long-soaked sample after Nf = 500 . . . . . . . . . . 96
Figure B.8 EG map for short-soaked sample after Nf = 1400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Figure B.11 EG map for long-soaked sample after Nf = 500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Figure B.12 EG map for long-soaked sample after Nf = 1000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
xi
Figure B.15 Histograms for DIC strain window and EG control window
optimization for ambient impact fatigued specimens, as described in
Sec. 3.3.4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
xii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Numerical model parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Table 2.2 Material properties and sample geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Table 2.3 Imaging parameters used for IR deflectometry measurements. . . . . . . . . 18
Table 3.1 Material properties and sample geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 3.2 Imaging parameters used in stereo-DIC analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table 3.3 Noise floor calculations with varying SW and CW, with optimal noise
threshold calculated at SW, CW = 5, 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Table 3.4 Optimal EG processing parameters and computational time . . . . . . . . . 40
Table 4.1 Material properties and sample geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Table 4.2 Imaging parameters used in stereo-DIC analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Table 4.3 List of ambient and hygrothermally degraded samples used for CAI
testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Table 4.4 List of ambient and hygrothermally degraded samples used for CAI
testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Table A.1 Copyright permissions obtained from Copyright Clearance Center for
Fig. 1.1, Fig. 1.2 and Chapter 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
xiii
LIST OF SYMBOLS
Accelerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ai
Body forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bi
Damage parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D
Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ρ
Kinematic admissibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . KA
Slopes in x, slopes in y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sx , Sy
Stiffness matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cijkl
Strain, in-plane shear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xy
Strain, longitudinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Strain, transverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yy
Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . σij
Tractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ti
Virtual displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . u∗i
Virtual strains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ∗ij
Water absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mt
Weight, dry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W0
Weight, measured at time t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wt
xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
American society for testing and materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ASTM
Barely-visible impact damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BVID
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CFRP
Compression-after-impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CAI
Control window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CW
Delamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DL
Digital image correlation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DIC
Equilibrium gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EG
Fiber-reinforced polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FRP
Finite element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FE
Flexural failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FF
Glass fiber-reinforced polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GFRP
Infrared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IR
Low-energy repetitive impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LERI
Non-destructive evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NDE
Strain window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SW
Transverse crack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TC
Virtual fields method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VFM
X-ray computed tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XCT
xv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to acknowledge the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for funding this project and
making this thesis possible, as well as the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF) for their
facilities. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Leslie Lamberson, whose support and
unwavering faith in me gave me opportunities I never even knew existed. I am the engineer
and scientist I am today because of her. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. John
Berger, Dr. Anthony Petrella, Dr. Ivar Reimanis, and Dr. Clive Siviour for always
reminding me to think outside the box, ask the hard questions, and enjoy my time in
school. Thank you to every aspect of Mines that made an impact on me. I thank members
of the graduate student government (GSG) and Dr. Jenny Briggs, who continue to
advocate for graduate students everywhere and inspire others to do the same. Thank you
to Calvary church lunch for making sure my friends and I were well-fed every Tuesday. I
thank the mechanical engineering department for being warm, welcoming, and hosting
excellent BBQ events. I thank my incredible labmates and office BB W310J, who have
made this graduate school experience anything but boring. Thank you Aaron and Thom,
my research-mates from across the pond who were with me through this degree beginning
to end, constantly reminding me that a PhD can be just as fun as it is challenging. Thank
you to Eliza and James, the best of friends anyone could ask for. Thank you Nicole, Karen,
Mark, Stelios, Andrew, Emily, Corey, Moira, Kim, Peter, Jordan: your friendships and
guidance got me through some of the biggest obstacles I’d ever faced. I thank all my
friends and family who kept cheering me on through the past four years. My deepest
gratitude goes to Derek and Lana: there aren’t enough words to describe what you have
done for me. My success is thanks to you.
xvi
For all the Filipinos who have a career in experimental mechanics waiting for them.
xvii
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The following thesis focuses on damage tolerancing in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer

(CFRP) composites under impact loading and environmental conditioning using full-field
measurements and the virtual fields method (VFM). This chapter outlines the motivation
behind the work, and provides a review of the methodologies used in the investigation.
1.1 Motivation
Composite structures have become increasingly popular in the last few decades for use
in military, marine, wind energy, construction and aerospace industries. A composite
structural component is typically comprised of a solid fibrous material (fiber) embedded in
a medium (matrix) [1]. These fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) allow the fabrication of
complex and intricate geometries that are difficult to achieve with other previously used
materials, like metals. FRPs also have higher specific strength and stiffness when compared
to their metallic counterparts, such as those reinforced with fiberglass, Kevlar, or carbon
fibers. However, composite laminates are susceptible to damage under transverse loading
due to their inherent layered structure [2]. One key concern is damage from impact loads
and low energy repetitive impact loads, which aircraft are exposed to from runway debris,
bird strikes, hail and ground service equipment [3].
Another major concern is the effects of the surrounding environment and humidity on
the structural integrity of the component, which is imperative for naval applications.
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs), in particular, are of great interest to both
naval and aerospace applications due to their high stiffness to weight ratio, oxidation
resistance, and flame resistance. Carbon fiber gained significant media attention recently,
when the OceanGate Expeditions Titan submersible with a composite hull catastrophically
imploded under deep-sea pressures [4, 5]. This unfortunate event emphasizes the need for
1
data-driven material selection and design, particularly with the damage response of CFRPs
in combined mechanical and environmental loading conditions.
The primary goal of this work is to measure subsurface damage severity in CFRPs
under repetitive impact loading and environmental conditioning. Understanding internal
damage mechanisms that cannot be seen by the naked eye requires the use of several
techniques. Thus, a summary of the experimental methods and analysis techniques
leveraged in this dissertation are presented in Sec. 1.2.
1.2 Background
1.2.1 Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP)
Impact fatigue is defined as the repetition of low-energy impacts, where each impact is
insufficient in causing total failure of a structure or component [6]. A schematic of the
deformation of a plate loaded in bending under low-velocity versus high-velocity impacts is
shown in Fig. 1.1, taken from Bibo and Hogg [7]. Sadighi and Alderliesten [6] categorized
investigations on repeated impacts into four distinct cases. The work presented here falls
under Cases I and II. Case I considers impact fatigue as a material characteristic and
excludes geometry effects. Case II builds on Case I, and takes target plate geometry effects
into account. A visual representation for both cases is presented in Fig. 1.2. The
terminology used here is derived from known terms in classical mechanical fatigue, with a
full list available in [6].
1.2.2 Damage in Composite Laminates
The measure of “damage” in a composite plate can be characterized in many different

ways. One of the most common methods involve measuring the damaged area caused by
delaminations after impact. Delaminations are a type of damage located between two plies,
or at the ply interface. They can only be present in between two adjoining plies, and the
shape of this depends on the orientation of the fibers within the plies involved [8].
Typically, delaminations are a macro-scale damage mechanism, and can be measured using
2
non-destructive techniques (NDT), which is explained further in Sec. 1.2.3.
Sometimes internal delaminations can be visibly seen from the surface of a plate, as is
the case in glass fiber-reinforced polymers (GFRPs). Glass fibers are translucent to visible
light, and turn opaque when damaged. Thus, several works exist investigating impact
fatigue in GFRPs [9–11]. However, this visual inspection is not possible for carbon fibers,
posing a challenge in impact fatigue damage characterization in CFRPs.
Figure 1.1 Low-velocity vs. high-velocity impact response of composite laminate plate,
taken from Bibo and Hogg [7].
Figure 1.2 Illustration of Case I and II for impact fatigue, adapted from Sadighi and
Alderliesten [6].
Damage from moisture and humidity should also be considered, especially when
exploring the use of CFRPs in naval applications. With respect to the impact resistance of
3
CFRP after hygrothermal degradation, several works have been published studying the
environmental conditioning of the low and high-velocity impact response of carbon/epoxy
specimens (e.g. [12–15]), though a unified view of the effective results still remains to be
seen.
1.2.3 Impact Damage Characterization Techniques
The most relevant damage evaluation techniques to the current study are briefly
described here. However, it should be noted that numerous methods exist for
characterizing damage in FRPs, but are not within the scope of this work.
Damage evaluation methods can typically categorized into two kinds: destructive and
non-destructive. One of the most commonly used destructive mechanical tests is the ASTM
standard compression-after-impact (CAI) test, where a post-impacted specimen is loaded in
compression to induce local buckling within the delaminated area, or impact zone. This is
a measure of the residual compressive strength of the material after a known impact energy
is imparted onto the specimen [16]. Indeed, residual compressive strength is a useful metric
for quantifying the effect of the impact. However, a destructive testing method requires
significantly more specimens in an experimental methodology. Furthermore, CAI tests have
stringent requirements on sample size and parallelism tolerances, driving up the time and
cost necessary to prepare specimens and complete tests. Thus, non-destructive techniques
(NDT) are more prevalent in literature for measuring impact fatigue damage [6].
Ultrasound C-scan is a well-established and popular NDT for measuring internal
delamination area within a damaged plate [17–19]. An ultrasonic wave is transmitted
through the thickness of the specimen, and damaged regions bounce the wave back,
allowing the size and shape of the delaminated areas to be resolved. It is best used for
industrial delamination detection, where the largest extent of delamination can be
identified quickly [20]. One such example is presented in Fig. 1.3.
4
Figure 1.3 Ultrasound C-scan of internal delaminations in CFRP after single impact at
15 J, taken from Devivier et al. [18].
Thermography is a NDT that relies on thermal gradients between pristine and damaged
regions within the specimen. This is caused by the change in heat diffusion through the
specimen due to delaminations [21]. A thermal camera can be used to image a damaged
specimen while heat is introduced via a heat gun, LEDs or halogen lights. The delaminated
region can typically be observed using the thermal camera images, allowing for very quick
inspection of the damaged area. This damage is observed in Fig. 1.4.
Figure 1.4 Thermal image of damaged CFRP specimen after heating up to 40◦ C (left) and
further analysis with MATLAB software to better visualize thermal gradients (right).
5
X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is a high-resolution technique that relies on
computational reconstruction of projections collected from different angles of illumination.
X-ray paths transmitted through the object allow a full 3D volumetric reconstruction of
the specimen [22], as seen in Fig. 1.5. In order to achieve high spatial resolution, damaged
areas within the specimen typically need to be extracted by cutting them out of the plate
with a water-jet cutter or diamond saw. XCT scans also require significant equipment time
when compared to all the previously mentioned techniques, and usually incur expensive
equipment cost.
Figure 1.5 XCT volumetric reconstruction of impact fatigued CFRP specimens.
The NDTs reviewed here give useful, cursory information on the spatial description of
impact damage. However, they do not offer any information about the mechanical response
of the material, making it difficult to perform any predictions about the remaining service
life. Rather, results from NDTs can be used to validate those collected from full-field
kinematic measurement techniques, as is described in the following section.
6
1.2.4 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Evaluation
Kinematic measurement techniques allow access to quantitative full-fields of mechanical

quantities like displacements and strains, which could be related to stresses, providing
constitutive properties are known. Such measurements allow richer datasets to be extracted
from materials under a prescribed load, as opposed to other traditional techniques for
kinematic measurements such as strain gages and load cells, which only offer single-point
measurements. Full-field methods typically require the use of cameras, which could be
costly depending on spatial and temporal resolution. A detailed description of prevalent
full-field metrology techniques can be found in Chapter 2. A common use for rich kinematic
data extracted from these methods is to visualize deformation fields for finite element (FE)
model validation. However, the current thesis takes the experimental data one step further
and uses the virtual fields method for data analysis, which is described in the next section.
1.2.5 The Virtual Fields Method (VFM) and Equilibrium Gap (EG) Indicator
The virtual fields method (VFM) leverages full-field heterogenous data, a key advantage
over traditional mechanical testing methods that employ stringent test constraints and
often require uniform strain fields for analysis [23]. VFM is based on the principle of
virtual work, which describes the global equilibrium of a solid. The principle of virtual
work is derived from the weak form of the equation of motion, and can be written as:
Z Z Z Z
∗ ∗ ∗
− σij εij dV + Ti ui dS + bi ui dV = ρai u∗i dV ∀ u∗i KA (1.1)
| V {z } |S {z V } | V {z }
Internal virtual work External virtual work Virtual work by accelerations
where σij are stresses, ∗ij and u∗i are kinematically-admissible virtual strains and virtual
displacements respectively, Ti are boundary tractions, bi are body forces, ρ is density and ai
are accelerations. Under static equilibrium, accelerations and body forces can be neglected
resulting in:
Z Z
σij ε∗ij dV = Ti u∗i dS (1.2)
V S
substituting σij = Cijkl εkl into Eq. 3.2 results in:
7
Z Z
Cijkl εkl ε∗ij dV = Ti u∗i dS (1.3)
V S
which now include experimentally measured strains (εkl ) and material stiffness parameters
(Cijkl ).
In the case of thin anisotropic plates in pure bending, Eq. (1.2) can be written as such:
Z n
X
Mi · κ∗i dS = Fj · wj∗ (1.4)
S j=1
where S is the surface of the plate, M contains the generalized bending moments, κ∗i
contain the virtual curvature fields derived from virtual deflection wi∗ , and F is the applied
force at n points. Recalling classical laminate theory, applied forces and moments relate to
mid-surface strains and curvatures through material parameters:

N A B 0
= (1.5)
M B D κ
Assuming an orthotropic plate in pure bending, only the applied moments (M) and D
matrix are conserved, where D represents the normalized bending stiffness terms of the
composite:
    
M1 D11 D12 0 κ1
M2  = D12 D22 0  κ2  (1.6)
M6 0 0 D66 κ6
or in integral form:
Z Z Z
D11 κ1 κ1 dS + D22 κ2 κ2 dS + D12 (κ1 κ∗2 + κ2 κ∗1 )dS
∗ ∗
S S S
Z Z Z n
X (1.7)
+ D16 (κ1 κ∗6 + κ6 κ∗1 )dS + D26 (κ2 κ∗6 + κ6 κ∗2 )dS + D66 κ6 κ∗6 dS = Fj · wj∗
S S S j=1
Finally, a plane stress assumption may be used as the method depends only on surface
measurements. Thus, Eq. (1.7) can be reduced to:
Z Z Z Z n
X
D11 κ1 κ∗1 dS + D22 κ2 κ∗2 dS + D12 (κ1 κ∗2 + κ2 κ∗1 )dS + D66 κ6 κ∗6 dS = Fj · wj∗ (1.8)
S S S S j=1
where:
8
• D11 is the material’s normalized bending stiffness in the fiber direction
• D22 is the normalized bending stiffness in the transverse direction
• D12 is the normalized bending stiffness associated with Poisson’s effect
• D66 is the material’s normalized torsional stiffness.
The applied force (F ) and physical curvatures (κ) are known from experiments, while
the virtual deflection (w∗ ) virtual curvatures (κ∗ ) relate to each other and are user-defined
to be kinematically admissible and fulfill boundary conditions.
It is important to note that in thin plates, surface strains and curvatures are related by
a factor of t/2, where t is the plate thickness. Thus, VFM is an equally effective analysis
technique on both experimentally measured strains and curvatures.
In previous studies, Eq. 1.3 had been solved to extract unknown constitutive
parameters [23–30]. In the current work, global material properties are known and VFM is
instead used as a test function to reveal local regions where the global constitutive
properties are no longer valid. This technique is called the equilibrium gap (EG) method,
which can be used as a damage indicator in CFRPs [18]. A detailed description of the
formulation for the EG indicator can be found in Sec. 3.3.2.
1.3 Project Scope
There are three major objectives for this thesis. The first goal is to explore high spatial
resolution full-field measurement techniques and determine their efficacy on extracting
surface kinematics from CFRP specimens. Once the most appropriate full-field
measurement method was determined, the second objective was to demonstrate how the
virtual fields method and equilibrium gap maps could be used as a damage indicator in
CFRP specimens after low-cycle impact fatigue loads. Finally, these methodologies were
applied to CFRPs under combined impact fatigue loading and environmental conditioning
to understand the kinematic response of CFRPs under coupled mechanical and
environmental loading.
9
The remainder of the thesis is outlined as follows:
• Chapter 2 investigates two full-field kinematic measurement techniques for extracting

surface strains from commercially-available CFRP specimens, with one being a
technique that has not been used on carbon fiber plates, and the other being a
well-established method in experimental techniques. Their advantages,
disadvantages, and paths for improvement are discussed.
• Chapter 3 explores the novel application of the equilibrium gap (EG) indicator on
CFRP specimens loaded under impact fatigue in order to measure relative damage
severity with increasing low-energy impact cycles.
• Chapter 4 applies the methodology developed in Chapter 3 to a novel investigation of

CFRPs under combined impact fatigue and environmental loading. Traditional
damage evaluation techniques are also employed to corroborate results.
• Chapter 5 concludes the findings from the current thesis, and discusses
recommendations for future improvement.
10
CHAPTER 2
INVESTIGATION OF FULL-FIELD OPTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR KINEMATIC
MEASUREMENTS ON CFRP
This chapter is based on a manuscript in preparation.

Isabella Mendoza1 and Leslie Lamberson2 .
2.1 Introduction
Kinematic measurement techniques provide quantitative maps of mechanical quantities

like slopes and displacements, from which strains can be calculated and then related to
stress (provided constitutive properties are known). This chapter briefly reviews the
available techniques for kinematic measurements, as well as explores the novel application
of a method which has not been explored this way previously in literature on CFRP plates:
infrared deflectometry.
2.1.1 Digital Image Correlation (DIC)
Digital image correlation (DIC) is one of the most commonly used full-field metrology
techniques in experimental mechanics due to its relatively low cost and ease of use [31].
DIC uses optical cameras to track the position of random speckle patterns on the surface of
a specimen. An image is taken while the specimen is at rest and another is taken when it is
under an applied load, allowing DIC software to track the deformation of the randomized
patterns on the sub-pixel level. This method is visualized in Fig. 2.1. The speckle pattern
can be applied using pre-made stamps or rollers, printing the pattern onto the specimen
surface directly, or using an airbush, allowing this method to be used on a wide variety of
material surface finishes.
1
Primary author
2
Associate Professor and Director of the X-STRM Lab at Colorado School of Mines
11
As DIC directly measures displacements, a single differentiation is needed to extract
in-plane strains from the specimen. This has been used effectively in fracture mechanics
and crack tracking [32–34]. For out-of-plane experimental configurations, strains are
proportional to curvatures, resulting in the need for two differentiations of out-of-plane
displacements using the Love-Kirchoff thin plate theory. This double differentiation can
lead to an increase in noise and decrease in measured signal, which may require more
smoothing. However, while the signal-to-noise ratio may decrease when used in the
out-of-plane configuration, several works have been published on the use of stereo-DIC for
kinematic measurements in composite materials [35–37].
Figure 2.1 Deformation tracking of randomized speckle pattern through digital image
correlation.
2.1.2 Thermoelasticity
Thermoelasticity is a technique that requires cyclic loading in order to measure small

temperature changes that occurs in a solid. As it has been shown that temperature change
is directly related to the stresses in a material, temperature change can be measured using
and infrared detector and related to stress [38]. This has been used as a damage detection
technique in fiber-reinforced polymer composites, and was able to evaluate fiber breakage,
matrix cracking and delaminations [39]. More recently, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA)
was able to reveal subsurface damage in CFRPs by measuring thermoelastic response at
12
low loading frequencies. However, one disadvantage of this technique is the necessity for
cyclic loading, which can result in damage propagation.
2.1.3 Grid Method
The grid method is a non-interferometric, white light technique that tracks the
movement of grid pitches on a specimen for extracting in-plane quantities like displacement
and strain [40]. A periodic grid pattern is transferred or printed onto the surface of the
specimen, and images of the grid before and after loading are compared. Windowed Fourier
analysis methods are then used to extract in-plane kinematic fields from the deformed grid
images. The grid method offers a better compromise between spatial and deformation
resolutions compared to DIC, making it highly effective for use with ultra high-speed
cameras that have a small pixel array size [41]. The major challenge with this technique is
that it relies on reproducible grid patterns, which must be as regular in pitch as possible.
Due to the repeating pattern, parasitic fringes in the displacement fields are a common
problem and can be difficult to diagnose. Fringes can arise due to grid defects, grid
irregularity, camera alignment and even lighting issues. Thus, troubleshooting aspects of
this technique can add significant preparation time in between experiments. Fig. 2.2 shows
a PMMA specimen with a grid pattern printed on the surface, with a pitch of 0.9 mm.
Figure 2.2 Printed grid on PMMA specimen with a grid pitch of 0.9 mm.
13
A modification to the grid method can be used to measure out-of-plane displacements,
where the grid is instead reflected onto the surface of a specimen while it is loaded in
bending. This technique is called deflectometry, and is explained in the following section.
2.1.4 Visible Light and Infrared (IR) Deflectometry
Deflectometry was first developed as a white light full-field measurement technique, and
is briefly reviewed here. A schematic of the experimental set-up is seen in Fig. 2.3. The
specimen is placed across a printed grid pattern and a camera, which is focused on the
reflection of the grid pattern on the reflective surface of the specimen. At rest, the point of
reflection is at point P. When a static point load is applied to the specimen, the reflected
point shifts to point Q. Spatial phase shifting is then used to find the local slope field,
which can be differentiated to find the curvature values. Finally, classical laminate theory
is used to obtain strain values from the curvatures. A full derivation of this technique can
be found in [20]. This process is summarized in Fig. 2.4.
Figure 2.3 Schematic of the deflectometry process to extract surface strains while the
specimen is loaded in bending.
14
Figure 2.4 Schematic of the deflectometry process to extract surface strains while the
specimen is loaded in bending.
To be considered specularly reflective, the surface of a specimen must satisfy the

Rayleigh criterion:
λ
>8
σcosθ
where λ is the wavelength of the light source, σ is the surface roughness of the specimen,
and θ is the incidence angle measured from the surface normal. Visible light has a
wavelength range of 400 to 700 nm. To satisfy the Rayleigh criterion, the surface roughness
of the specimen must be less than 60 nm in normal incidence. The stringent surface
roughness requirement is one of the major limitations of this technique, especially with
CFRPs which can have surface roughness values up to 8 µm after processing [42]. Kim
et al. [43] and Devivier et al. [18] were able to decrease the surface roughness of CFRP
plates by applying a resin coating to the surface of the specimen [44]. While this resulted
in the successful implementation of white light deflectometry to CFRP plates, it added
significant time and complexity to the sample preparation process.
Toniuc and Pierron [45] explored the use of long infrared light instead of visible light,
which has a wavelength of approximately 10 µm. Using the Rayleigh criterion, specimens
15
with surface roughness values up to 1.5 µm could be examined, allowing a wider range of
materials to be tested with IR deflectometry. When using infrared light instead of visible
light, the emissivity of the specimen should be taken into consideration. A material with
high emissivity allows IR light to emit through the specimen, while a lower emissivity value
allows IR light to reflect off the surface of the specimen. They examined the application of
IR deflectometry on common engineering materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, PVC,
ABS, and even CFRP plates with a surface roughness of 0.17 µm. While they qualitatively
observed the grid contrast on the surface of these different materials, they only performed a
full deflectometry experiment on the aluminum plate with σ ≤ 1.4 µm, which has a much
lower emissivity value than carbon fiber. Here, a study on CFRP plates is quantitatively
conducted to determine the effectiveness of IR deflectometry.
2.2 Numerical and Experimental Investigations

2.2.1 Numerical Modeling of Full-field Strain Measurements
A finite element (FE) model was first developed in order to visualize the expected
kinematic measurements of the CFRP plate under a prescribed static bending load. An
orthotropic plate with dimensions of 190 mm × 140 mm × 2.5 mm was created using
ABAQUS/CAE software. Considering only surface strains are the measurements being
investigated here, S4R 2D elements were selected with an element size of 2.5 mm × 2.5
mm. Full model parameters are listed in Table 2.1. The plate mesh, boundary conditions
and loading configurations are presented in Fig. 2.5. A pinned boundary condition was
applied to the upper-left, lower-left and lower-right corners of the plate, while a 10 N
concentrated point load was applied to the center of the plate to bend it out-of-plane.
The resulting longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strains for this unidirectional
carbon fiber plate model are presented in Fig. 2.6.
16
Table 2.1 Numerical model parameters.
Software ABAQUS/CAE 2021

Plate material Hexcel IM7-8552 UD CF pre-preg
Exx , Eyy , Gxy 161 GPa, 11.4 GPa, 5.17 GPa
Length × width 190 mm × 140 mm × 2.5 mm
Element type S4R 2D
Element size 2.5 mm × 2.5 mm
Total no. of elements 4256
Figure 2.5 ABAQUS CAE mesh model (left) and prescribed boundary conditions and
loading configuration (right).
Figure 2.6 Longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strain fields produced from finite
element model.
17
2.2.2 Application of IR Deflectometry for Experimental Strain Measurements
The work presented here explored the use of IR deflectometry on pristine,

commercially-available CFRP plates as-received from McMaster-Carr [46], with full sample
properties in Table 2.2. A bi-material grid was created by printing black squares on a
brushed aluminum plate. When the grid is heated up using a heat gun, the contrast
between the black, high-emissivity ink squares and the low-emissivity aluminum substrate
generates a grid pattern in the IR wavelength, imaged using an infrared camera. Relevant
imaging parameters are listed in Table 2.3.
Table 2.2 Material properties and sample geometry [46]
Lay-up [45/-45/90/0]3s
Length × width 304.8 × 228.6 mm2
Thickness 3.18 mm
Avg. surface roughness 1.5 µm
Carbon fiber modulus 228-248 GPa
McMaster-Carr SKU 4430N14
Table 2.3 Imaging parameters used for IR deflectometry measurements.
Grid plate dimensions 91.44 mm × 91.44 mm × 3.18 mm

Printed grid pitch 4.23 mm
Camera model InfraTec VarioCAM HD head 980
Sensor array size 1024 × 768 px
Spectral range 7.5 to 14 µm
Lens 30 mm
Temperature measurement range -40 to 1200◦ C
Measurement accuracy ±1.5 K
The experimental set-up for IR deflectometry bending tests is shown in Fig. 2.7. The
CFRP plate had a pinned boundary condition applied to three of its four corners, to induce
a rich, heterogenous strain field. First, the bi-material grid pattern was heated up using a
heat gun, while a live feed of the reflection of the grid on the surface of the CFRP plate
was being imaged using the IR camera. The maximum temperature range measured within
18
the region of interest was 2.1◦ C. Once the grid pattern reflection appeared, an infrared
image of the CFRP plate at rest was taken. Then, a static point load was applied to the
rear-face of the specimen, bending the plate out-of-plane towards the camera. A second
image was taken while the plate was deflected. The at-rest and deflected images of the
reflected grid patterns on the as-received CFRP plate are shown in Fig. 2.8, along with a
histogram of the grayscale values measured within the gridded region of the images.
An algorithm to extract surface slopes from the grid images [18, 43] was then used to
produce kinematic fields of the specimen while loaded in bending. The strain fields
extracted from IR deflectometry were compared to numerical strain results from ABAQUS
models with identical geometries and generic CFRP material properties, similar to FE
model developed in Sec. 2.2.1.
In Fig. 2.9, the static point load was applied to the center of the plate. In Fig. 2.10, the
point load was located closer to the bottom of the plate. In both cases, the experimental
strains agree with the numerical strain fields within an order of magnitude. Thus, IR
deflectometry was successfully implemented for the first time on CFRP plates.
Figure 2.7 Experimental set-up for IR deflectometry bending tests.
19
Figure 2.8 At rest and deflected images of grid reflection in as-received CFRP plate surface,
with call-out of grid reflection squares and histogram of grayscale values.
Figure 2.9 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending in the center of the plate with
resulting slope maps (top) and comparison of experimental (middle) vs. numerical strain
maps in millistrain (bottom).
20
Figure 2.10 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending towards the bottom edge of the plate
with resulting slope maps (top) and comparison of experimental (middle) vs. numerical
strain maps in millistrain (bottom).
2.2.3 Efforts for Improving the IR Deflectometry Technique
The results in the previous section proved the IR deflectometry could be successfully
applied to CFRP plates with a surface roughness of less than 1.5 µm. However, it should
be noted that when the bi-material grid was heated up, the reflection on the CFRP surface
would disappear within 30 seconds. Thus, it was crucial that the undeformed and deformed
images were taken within seconds of heating up the grid. Some trials required the grid to
be re-heated in between the undeformed and deformed images, in order to maintain the
necessary contrast in the reflected grid for imaging. With such a high emissivity material,
it became necessary to investigate potential solutions for increasing the IR reflectivity.
To decrease the emissivity of the CFRP specimen, a thin coat of commercially-available
metallic spray paint embedded with real flakes of metal leafing was applied to the imaging
surface. Adding this metallic paint layer increased the recording time of the reflected grid
21
to over a minute, allowing more time for camera alignment and imaging in between heating
cycles of the grid. The maximum temperature range within the gridded region of interest
also increase by 19%, or 0.5◦ C. The reflected grid images and histogram of grayscale values
are seen in Fig. 2.11, while the resulting slope and strain maps are presented in Fig. 2.12.
Figure 2.11 At rest and deflected images of grid reflection in as-received CFRP plate
surface, with call-out of grid reflection squares and histogram of grayscale values.
Figure 2.12 Schematic of specimen loaded in bending towards the right edge of the plate
with resulting slope maps (top) and resulting experimental strain maps in millistrain
(bottom).
22
2.3 Conclusions
A modification to white light deflectometry, known as infrared deflectometry, was

applied to CFRP plates. Based upon the work presented, the following conclusions are
made:
• IR deflectometry was successful in measuring out-of-plane slopes and strains on the

surface of CFRP plates while loaded in bending.
• Using infrared light rather than visible light relaxes the constraint for surface finish,
and allows roughness values up to 1.5 µm.
• Adding a layer of commercially-available metallic spray paint to the surface of the

specimen increased the contrast and temperature range of the ROI, allowing for
longer image recording times.
• When specimens have surface roughness values above 1.5 µm, as opposed to 60 nm
for visible light.
• Other kinematic measurement techniques, such as DIC, should be considered instead

for this composite and setup due to surface roughness requirements.
23
CHAPTER 3
EVALUATION OF LOW-CYCLE IMPACT FATIGUE DAMAGE IN CFRP USING THE
VIRTUAL FIELDS METHOD
This chapter is based on a publication in the Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials.

Isabella Mendoza1 , Aaron Graham2 , Andrew Matejunas3 , Greyson Hodges4 , Mark
Pankow5 , Clive Siviour6 and Leslie Lamberson7
Fiber-reinforced composites subject to low-energy repeated impacts can result in

subsurface damage that affects their structural integrity. This paper presents a
non-destructive damage evaluation technique for carbon-fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP)
using the virtual fields method (VFM). Repeated impacts with an energy of 2 J were
performed on 8-ply quasi-isotropic unidirectional (UD) CFRP plates, with a maximum of
2000 impact cycles. Stereo-digital image correlation (DIC) was used to extract surface
strains of impacted plates under a static bending load. VFM was then used to reveal gaps
in local mechanical equilibrium through a technique known as the equilibrium gap (EG)
indicator. VFM successfully captured internal relative damage severity which was
corroborated with X-ray computed tomography (XCT). Results showed that specimens
with measurable EG signals exhibited considerable interlaminar matrix delaminations and
1
Primary author, performed all experimental testing and analysis for the current work.
2
PhD candidate at the Solid Mechanics and Materials Engineering Group at University of Oxford. Advised
on the development of the virtual fields used and implementation of the equilibrium gap (EG) method.
3
PhD candidate at the Extreme Structures and Materials (X-STRM) Lab at Colorado School of Mines.
Assisted in the implementation and writing of general virtual fields method (VFM) analysis.
4
PhD graduate from the Ballistic Loading and Structural Testing (BLAST) Lab at North Carolina State
University. Assisted in stereo-digital image correlation (DIC) and testing on CFRPs.
5
Associate Professor and Director of the BLAST Lab at North Carolina State University. Advised on testing
and analysis performed on CFRP specimens.
6
Professor of Engineering Science at University of Oxford. Advised on the implementation of VFM and the
EG damage indicator.
7
Primary Investigator, Associate Professor and Director of the X-STRM Lab at Colorado School of Mines.
Provided thesis supervision for primary author, facilities for testing and analysis capabilities for the current
work.
24
flexural failure, thus effectively using VFM as an indicator for subsurface damage from
low-cycle impact fatigue.
3.1 Introduction
The demand for carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite components has
increased significantly in the last decade due to their high stiffness and strength-to-weight
ratios. CFRPs are used extensively for applications in the military, aerospace and
automotive industries due not only to their light weight, but also due to advanced
composite manufacturing techniques which allow for more complicated and intricate
geometries than was previously possible . However, these laminates are susceptible to
damage under transverse impact loading due to their inherent layered structure [2].
Specifically for aircraft, impacts can come from runway debris, bird strikes, hail, ground
service equipment and the like [3]. These events result in complex damage mechanisms,
such as matrix cracking, fiber failure and interlaminar matrix delamination, which can
cause local stress concentrations, stiffness loss, and local instabilities leading to compressive
failure [17, 47–49]. In particular, low-velocity impacts can result in barely-visible impact
damage (BVID) which is difficult to characterize and is an active field of research. Studies
have shown that BVID can result in a considerable decrease in mechanical properties, such
as bending stiffness and fatigue life [50–52]. Even less is known about BVID resulting from
low-energy repeated impacts (LERI) or impact fatigue, and its effects on mechanical
properties and damage mechanisms, as studied here.
Impact damage in CFRPs is typically identified with non-destructive evaluation (NDE)
techniques such as ultrasound C-scan, thermography and X-ray computed tomography
(XCT) [53–55]. However, these methods can be expensive in both cost and time due to the
equipment necessary to perform experiments. These techniques are often used in the
literature to measure the damage area in fiber-reinforced polymers, or more specifically the
progression of damage area as the number of impact cycles increases [11, 56–61]. While
quantifying damage area can provide quick, cursory information on defects within CFRP
25
specimens, it does not offer any significant insight on the kinematic or constitutive
response of the material.
Analysis methods making use of full-field optical metrology have gained traction in
recent years, taking advantage of the rich kinematic data fields provided by modern
measurement techniques [62–64]. One such technique is digital image correlation (DIC), a
full-field non-contact optical technique that measures surface kinematics by tracking
feature displacements on a specimen [65, 66]. DIC has become a standard measurement
tool in experimental mechanics due advances in imaging technologies and its flexibility,
making this technique particularly helpful for anisotropic materials such as composites
[35, 36, 67–70]. A popular use of DIC in characterizing impact damage in CFRPs is to
measure strain concentrations in compression-after-impact (CAI) tests [37, 71–73], an
ASTM standard method which induces local buckling at the impacted site under
compressive loading. While CAI can provide valuable information on the post-impact
residual strength of the material, it relies on extensive sample preparation and is a fully
destructive technique [16], unlike what is performed in this study.
A few works have been published that leverage full-field metrology for the
non-destructive evaluation of BVID in composite laminates [18, 43]. For instance, Devivier
et al. [18] used deflectometry, a high-spatial resolution technique that utilizes specular
reflection to measure surface slopes and curvatures while a plate is loaded in bending.
Coupled with the virtual fields method (VFM), an inverse technique typically used for
material parameter identification [23], local gaps in mechanical equilibrium were identified
using high-resolution curvature fields. However, visible-light deflectometry requires
substantial sample preparation to satisfy requirements. Toniuc and Pierron [45] explored
the use of infrared light in deflectometry to allow for rougher materials, but specimens still
required a maximum surface roughness of 1.5 µm, whereas CFRPs have surface roughness
values up to 8 µm after processing [42]. Thus, it is important to develop analysis
techniques that can be applied to a variety of surface finishes.
26
3.1.1 Definitions and Terminology in Impact Fatigue
With rapidly growing interest in investigating fiber-reinforced polymers under low-cycle

repeated impact, it is important to clearly define the scope of the current work. Sadighi and
Alderliesten [6] categorized investigations on repeated impacts into four distinct cases. The
work presented here falls under Sadighi and Alderliesten’s Cases I and II. Case I considers
impact fatigue as a material characteristic and excludes geometry effects. Case II builds on
Case I, and takes target plate geometry effects into account. The terminology used here is
derived from known terms in classical mechanical fatigue, with a full list available in [6].
3.1.2 Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers
Damage evolution from impact fatigue in fiber-reinforced polymers have historically

been evaluated by making localized measurements at the impact zone. For instance,
Wyrick and Adams [74] performed repeated impact experiments on CFRPs at 3 J up to
30 J and recorded the visual and tactile characteristics of the post-impact plate. They also
used ultrasound C-scan and X-radiography to observe the internal damage mechanisms
present. After 100 impact cycles at 3 J, they found that damage was mostly limited to the
middle plies. At stronger repeated impacts of 10 J and above, damage was found through
the entire thickness of the plate, with it being primarily located in the bottom (rear) plies.
Boukhili et al. [56] investigated CFRPs under repeated impacts of 2.50 J up to 3.59 J and
measured the total delamination area using ultrasound C-scan. He used scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) to determine that the damaged area exhibited three stages: stage I
corresponded to matrix cracking, stage II showed rapid delamination growth, and at stage
III, damage growth rate decreased significantly. Sınmazçelik et al. [75] studied the impact
fatigue properties of polyetherimide (PEI) using an Izod impact pendulum at impact
energies of 0.16 to 1.08 J. Fractography results showed primary debonding, fiber breakage
and pullout in the tensile zone. David-West et al. [76] measured the resistance of CFRP
laminates to the impulsive force under impact. The rate of damage progression was
27
determined by measuring force-displacement data, which represented the history of energy
transferred from the impactor to the plate. Macroscopic modes of damage observed on
perforated specimens were matrix cracking and back face splitting.
While all these observations are indeed valuable, the field of impact fatigue specifically
in CFRP laminates is still lacking, unlike the literature available for glass fiber-reinforced
polymers (GFRP) [6, 9–11]. This is likely because GFRPs are translucent to visible light,
and delaminated areas turn opaque after impact, allowing researchers to visually inspect
and measure internal delaminations in the material [57]. In CFRPs this is not possible,
making it difficult to inspect damage propagation without costly characterization
equipment or destroying the specimen.
This study aims to expand the knowledge on impact fatigue damage in CFRPs by
combining the practical use of DIC, a non-destructive metrology technique, and time- and
cost-efficient analysis via the virtual fields methods (VFM). The overall flow of the
experimental and analytical processes is presented in Fig. 3.1.
Figure 3.1 A graphical representation of the experimental and analytical processes

performed in this study. Impact fatigue experiments are described in Sec. 3.2.2, stereo-DIC
in Sec. 3.2.3, VFM in Sec. 3.3, and XCT in Sec. 3.4.2.
28
3.2 Experimental Procedure
3.2.1 Material Selection
The material chosen for this investigation was 8-ply, quasi-isotropic uni-directional
carbon fiber laminates with a [0/45/-45/90]s stacking lay-up as-received from RockWest
Composites. The outer 0◦ plies have fibers aligned vertically along the global y−axis, as
seen in Figures 3.2 and 3.3. This classic lay-up was chosen in order to focus the
investigation of this current work on the VFM analysis for damage identification, though
more complex laminate lay-ups will be considered in future work. Sample properties are
listed in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1 Material properties and sample geometry [77]
Lay-up [0/45/90/-45]s
Thickness 2.5 mm
Carbon fiber modulus 228 GPa
RockWest SKU 48411
3.2.2 Impact Fatigue Experiments
Repetitive impact experiments were performed using a patented dynamic fatigue device
(DFD) [78]. A 300 g steel projectile 12.7 mm in diameter and 300 mm in length with a
hemispherical tip was spring-launched into the center of the CFRP plate at a speed of 3.6
m/s, resulting in an impact energy of 2 J. The impact face of the specimen corresponds to
the 1st ply of the CFRP laminate. The specimen plate was clamped around its edges
between two steel plates, each with a square cut-out area measured at 127 mm × 127 mm.
When the specimen is impacted, a compressive stress wave travels from the impacted
surface of the 1st ply through the thickness of the plate, and reflects from the rear (8th ply)
free surface as a tensile wave. After each impact, the projectile was automatically reloaded
and primed for launch, allowing the user to program any set number of impacts and the
experiments to be carried out autonomously at the sample impact zone.
29
Impact cycles were carried up to a maximum of Nf = 2000, and specimens were
evaluated for impact fatigue damage at Nf = 1000, 1400, 1800 and 2000. Separate
specimens were used for each cycle frequency to maximize processing time with a loading
rate of 120 impact cycles/hr. This corresponds to an interimpact time of 30 seconds,
ensuring that there were no impact-to-impact wave interactions. The DFD and loading
configuration can be seen in Fig. 3.2, where the outer layer fibers are oriented along the
global y−axis, and the impact and through-thickness axis is oriented along the global
z−axis.
After the designated number of impact cycles was complete for each specimen, the
surface of the rear ply was prepped for digital image correlation. First, the imaging face
was cleaned lightly using isopropyl alcohol. Then, the entire face was painted flat-white
and then speckled using flat black commercially-available spray paint.
Figure 3.2 Dynamic fatigue device used for impact fatigue experiments (above) and
close-up schematic of clamped region (below).
30
3.2.3 Static Bending Experiments
Stereo-digital image correlation (DIC) was used to extract full-field strain

measurements on the surface of the post-impact CFRP specimen while under a static
applied load as shown in Fig. 3.3. A pinned boundary condition was applied on the
upper-right, lower-right and lower-left corners of the plate while a point load was applied to
the impacted face of the specimen until it was deflected 6.35 mm out-of-plane. This
produced heterogeneous kinematic fields which are advantageous for VFM analysis [23].
This bending configuration was chosen to allow any damage present on the rear surface of
the plate to be opened in tension, as damage is more likely to appear on the surface of the
8th ply due to the tensile stress wave reflected from the rear free surface of the specimen
during impact experiments, as was observed in literature [74, 76].
Two cameras were necessary for stereo-DIC, in order to measure out-of-plane
displacements. Two FLIR Blackfly S cameras with 50 mm lenses were used for imaging
while an LED bulb was used to illuminate the specimen, as seen in Fig. 3.3. A reference
image was taken while the sample was at rest, and a deformed image was taken while the
point load was applied. Surface displacements were measured using stereo-DIC, then
post-processed into strains through spatial differentiation via DIC software. Camera
settings and DIC parameters are listed in Table 3.2. The listed DIC settings were selected
using a parametric sweep, which is described in Sec. 3.3.4.
It should be noted that other non-contact optical methods such as deflectometry can be
used to measure out-of-plane deformations at a higher spatial resolution [18, 45, 79, 80].
However, DIC was chosen over other methods due to greater ease of real-world application,
as more sensitive techniques like IR deflectometry are most effective in controlled lab
environments.
31
Figure 3.3 Stereo-DIC set-up and bending rig with camera view (above) and schematic for
bending test loading configuration (below).
Table 3.2 Imaging parameters used in stereo-DIC analysis.
Camera model FLIR Blackfly S

Bit-depth 8-bit
Lens 50 mm
Stereo angle 11◦
Exposure time 15 ms
Software MatchID Stereo v 2023
Calibration error 0.44%
Subset size 31-33 px
Step size 10 px
Correlation Criterion ZNSSD
Interpolation Function Quadratic
Pre-filtering Gaussian (k = 5)
Displacement resolution 0.09 mm
Strain convention Log. Euler-Almansi
Strain window 5
Virtual Strain Gauge 71-73 px
Strain Interpolation Quadrilateral 4
32
3.3 Application of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM) to Damage Identification
3.3.1 Derivation of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM)
VFM leverages full-field heterogenous data, a key advantage over traditional mechanical
testing methods that employ stringent test constraints and often require uniform strain
fields for analysis [23]. VFM is based on the principle of virtual work, which describes the
global equilibrium of a solid. The principle of virtual work is derived from the weak form of
the equation of motion, and can be written as:
Z Z Z Z
∗ ∗
− σij εij dV + Ti ui dS + bi u∗i dV = ρai u∗i dV ∀ u∗i KA (3.1)
| V {z } |S {z V } | V {z }
where σij are stresses, ∗ij and u∗i are kinematically-admissible virtual strains and virtual
displacements respectively, Ti are boundary tractions, bi are body forces, ρ is density and ai
are accelerations. Under static equilibrium, accelerations and body forces can be neglected
resulting in:
Z Z
σij ε∗ij dV = Ti u∗i dS (3.2)
V S
Substituting σij = Cijkl εkl into Eq. 3.2 results in:

Z Z
∗
Cijkl εkl εij dV = Ti u∗i dS (3.3)
V S
which now include experimentally measured strains (εkl ) and material stiffness parameters
(Cijkl ). In previous studies, Eq. 3.3 had been solved to extract unknown constitutive
parameters [23–30]. In the current work, global material properties are known and VFM is
instead used as a test function to reveal local regions where the global constitutive
properties are no longer valid. This technique is called the equilibrium gap method, which
is explained in detail in Sec. 3.3.2.
3.3.2 Formulation of the Equilibrium Gap (EG) Indicator
Considering that surface strains are measured using stereo-DIC, 2D Kirchoff-Love thin
plate theory was applied to the VFM analysis. As mentioned previously, global constitutive
33
properties are known here and the VFM is instead used as a test function to reveal
locations of local damage where the global constitutive properties are no longer valid. The
formation of the equilibrium gap (EG) method begins with further manipulating Eq. 3.3
into the form:
Z Z
Cijkl εkl ε∗ij dS − Ti u∗i dS = 0 (3.4)
S S
This dictates that when the left-hand side of Eq. 3.4 is equal to zero, the specific
subsection of the specimen being processed satisfies mechanical equilibrium and all
underlying assumptions. When it does not equal zero, this signifies a deviation from
mechanical equilibrium and can be used as a damage indicator, as seen in Eq. 3.5.
Z Z
EG = Cijkl εkl εij dS − Ti u∗i dS
∗
(3.5)
S S
To implement this in practice, a subset of data points is selected, otherwise known as a

“control window.” After the scalar EG value is calculated for the data points in the control
window, the window shifts a designated sliding pitch, and the process is repeated;
effectively building up a rasterized map of the EG, analogously to how strain fields are
calculated from displacement fields in the DIC software. Depending on the amount of
kinematic data being processed, the size of the control window and sliding pitch can
significantly affect the computational time of the analysis [18]. By sliding the control
window over the entirety of the specimen and calculating a scalar EG value at each step, a
map of local “gaps” in equilibrium can be identified and measured, resulting in a damage
indicator map. For more details on this technique, the reader is referred to previous
works [18, 43, 81, 82].
The virtual fields were chosen such that u∗i = 0 around the edges of the control window,
removing the need for known tractions in Eq. 3.5. Applying this method to discrete
kinematic data, it is necessary to approximate the integrals as summations:
Npts
X
EG = n
Cijkl εnkl ε∗n
ij (3.6)
n=1
34
where N is the number of data points within a single control window. After selecting the
virtual fields, Eq. 3.6 is solved and a map of EG values is generated. Considering that EG
scales with stress level, the results were normalized by Eq. 3.7:
q
(Cxx xx,max )2 + (Cyy yy,max )2 + (Cxy xy,max )2 (3.7)
as the location of the point load is known beforehand, EG values at these coordinates were
set to N aN .
3.3.3 Selection of Virtual Fields
The choice of virtual fields is crucial and can significantly affect the results as
demonstrated in the current subsection. Here, three types of virtual fields were selected
and their effect on the resulting EG maps were evaluated. The strain window and control
window chosen were optimized and explained in detail in Sec. 3.3.4.
In Case A, the virtual fields were selected to be isotropic, where u∗x = u∗y . In Case B,
the fields were chosen to be anisotropic, with displacements in the y-direction set to 0.
Case C also exhibits anisotropic virtual fields, but with displacements in the x-direction
set to 0. The virtual fields for each case are listed below. The visual representation of the
virtual fields along with the EG maps generated from each case are presented in Fig. 3.4.
As mentioned previously, EG values at the location of the applied point-load were set to
N aN and is represented by the dark blue square in the EG maps. Data was also trimmed
around the edges of the specimen to account for edge effects.
Case A: Isotropic virtual fields where u∗x = u∗y
u∗x = (1 − x2 )(1 − y 2 ) ε∗xx = 2x(y 2 − 1)

u∗y = (1 − x2 )(1 − y 2 ) ε∗yy = 2y(x2 − 1)
ε∗xy = x(y 2 − 1) + y(x2 − 1)
Case B: Anisotropic virtual fields where u∗y = 0
35
u∗x = (1 − x2 )(1 − y 2 ) ε∗xx = 2x(y 2 − 1)
u∗y = 0 ε∗yy = 0
ε∗xy = y(x2 − 1)
Case C: Anisotropic virtual fields where u∗x = 0
u∗x = 0 ε∗xx = 0
u∗y = (1 − x2 )(1 − y 2 ) ε∗yy = 2y(x2 − 1)
ε∗xy = x(y 2 − 1)
Figure 3.4 Visualization of isotropic and anisotropic fields (above) and their effect on
calculated EG maps (below) on post-mortem specimen after 2000 impact cycles. The blue
regions represent values of N aN where the known location of the point load was applied.
Note that the virtual fields are valid over the isoparametric domain on the interval from
[-1 -1] to [1 1] inclusive, where the isoparametric domain spans the control window. The
domain scales with the control window size and is independent of the specimen dimension.
In Case A, the isotropic virtual fields were able to reveal gaps in local equilibrium at
the impact zone, as seen in Fig. 3.4. However, the EG map does have noise that could be
36
improved. In Case B, u∗y was set to zero hence ε∗yy was also zero, effectively filtering out
any influence and noise resulting from the strain fields in the y−direction. This resulted in
an EG map that more clearly highlighted the damaged subsection. In Case C, u∗x = 0 and
thus ε∗xx = 0, causing the opposite effect observed in the previous case. Here, any
information about the damaged region was completely filtered out, which would produce a
false conclusion about the lack of damage in the specimen. Thus, the selection of virtual
fields should be chosen on a case-by-case basis, carefully considering the material isotropy,
geometry and loading configuration. In practice, multiple virtual fields should be used if the
underlying damage shape is unknown. Had the material orientation been offset by 90◦ , the
virtual fields from Case C would have been optimal, and Case B would have given little to
no information. Using all three virtual fields gives better sensitivity than Case A alone,
while using all three virtual fields provides far better specificity than Cases B or C alone.
It is clear that the virtual fields from Case B provided the most effective EG maps for
this investigation. This is likely because the applied load causes a tensile stress on the
imaging face, allowing any fiber-splitting in the x-direction to be observed on the surface.
Thus, by setting u∗y and ε∗yy to zero, unnecessary noise in the y-direction had been filtered
out. It is important to note that other virtual fields may also work for this application, but
were not explored here.
3.3.4 Processing Parameter Optimization
The tunable parameters in the current work must be assessed before proceeding with
the analysis to ensure that features of interest are captured by DIC and VFM. The effects
of the DIC strain window (SW) size and EG control window (CW) size are briefly explored
in this subsection. The strain window is related to the size of the virtual strain gage (VSG)
listed in Table 3.2, and the control window corresponds to the number of strain data points
as described in Eq. 3.6.
To quantify the signal strength of the EG method, the maximum, absolute EG value
from each sample was identified while varying the SW used in stereo-DIC and the CW used
37
for EG analysis. A ratio between the |EG|max of a damaged specimen and the EGavg of a
pristine, undamaged specimen with identical processing parameters was calculated, and the
results can be seen in the heat map presented in Fig. 3.5. The values were normalized with
respect to the maximum signal detected across all samples and processing parameters.
Figure 3.5 Parametric sweep for EG calculation with varying strain window and control
window size, with optimal signal-to-noise ratio observed at a strain window of 5 and
control window size of 6.
The results of the parametric sweep show a general trend of increasing signal strength
with decreasing DIC strain window SW and CW. While the smallest windows produce the
greatest signal, this comes at a significant cost in noise, shown by the results at SW = 3,
CW = 4; where the signal strength is either very strong or very weak depending on the
number of impact cycles. Indeed, one should take great care when performing a
parameterization study using this technique such that the specificity of the technique does
not suffer in the pursuit of sensitivity. This is to ensure that the selected parameters are
38
optimal for the investigation in question, which is heavily influenced by the geometry of the
material, loading configuration and the virtual fields chosen.
To select the optimal set of parameters in the current work, histograms of the data
from EG maps were generated for the pristine specimen and a specimen where the signal
was clearly visible (in this case, Nf = 2000) with varying SW and CW sizes, as seen in the
histogram curves presented in Fig. 3.5.
The EG values calculated using a pristine specimen correspond to the noise floor of this
technique, represented by the top row of histogram plots. In a pristine specimen, the only
non-zero EG measurements should be spurious, due either to measurement noise or
over-smoothing of strain fields by the DIC as seen in SW, CW = 3, 4. The frequency plot
of the EG values due to noise is expected to be approximately Gaussian, with distortions
from this shape due to over-smoothing of strain fields (or the presence of damage).
The pristine specimen histograms show that the noise floor is minimized at SW = 5,
CW = 6; any lower and strain noise increases the maximum apparent EG value; any higher
and the low pass filter effect of the SW causes an apparent increase in EG as the overly
smooth strain fields violate equilibrium. Note the strong distortion of the histogram at
SW, CW = 11, 12, for instance. The noise floor values are listed in Table 3.3, with the
signal threshold recorded at 0.356 in this case. Indeed, SW, CW = 5, 6 was found to be
optimal and marked with a star in the Fig. 3.5 heat maps as it offers sufficient sensitivity
with minimal noise. The optimized parameters and recorded computational time are listed
in Table 3.4. It should be noted that each specimen will have somewhat different
characteristics, and the noise floor from one specimen does not necessarily translate
directly to another. The shape of the histogram and its deviation from a normal
distribution should be scrutinized more than the overall width of the curve, as the latter
may correlate more to inter-specimen material and measurement variations rather than due
to differences in loading. For a truly comprehensive study, one could incorporate the use of
a digital virtual twin (DVT) that allows artificial deformation of an image based on finite
39
element (FE) nodal deformations [83, 84]. This method would allow for more efficient
probing of the parameter space, as well as removing the effect of inter-specimen variability.
Table 3.3 Noise floor calculations with varying SW and CW, with optimal noise threshold
calculated at SW, CW = 5, 6.
DIC EG Pristine False Positives

SW CW Noise Threshold Detected
3 4 0.442 Yes
5 6 0.356 No
7 8 0.427 No
9 10 0.437 No
11 12 0.571 No
Table 3.4 Optimal EG processing parameters and computational time
Computer chip Apple M1

RAM 8 GB
Control window 6 × 6 pts2
Sliding pitch 1 pt
Software MATLAB R2022a
Max. processing time 4.08 s
Specimens with Nf < 1000 were not included as they did not produce sufficient signal
strength values, which will be further investigated in Sec. 3.4. This could simply be a
limitation of this technique, indicating that for very low-cycle impact fatigue at low impact
energies, a higher spatial-resolution technique such as XCT or deflectometry may be more
appropriate for characterization.
Processing parameters and computational time are shown in Table 3.4. It should be
noted that many of the summations used in this analysis could be replaced by convolutions
if computational time needed to be optimized. This would be beneficial for work on larger
datasets, work using more computationally intensive material models, or other such setups
that result in significantly greater computational requirements than this study.
40
3.4 Post-Mortem Damage Evaluation
3.4.1 Use of Full-Field Metrology and VFM
The longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strain fields produced from stereo-DIC
are presented in Fig. 3.6, for samples with 0, 1000 and 1400 impact fatigue cycles. The
boundary conditions here are identical to the configuration seen in Fig. 3.3, where the
upper-right, lower-right and lower-left edges are pinned. The location of the applied static
point-load is labeled in the pristine specimen, while regions of interest in the impacted
samples are highlighted with red arrows.
Figure 3.6 Evolution of post-mortem longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strain
maps in millistrain (mε) under static bending load extracted using stereo-DIC after
increasing impact fatigue cycles with a strain window of 5.
Upon observation, the xx strain fields already provide information on the location of
potential damage. This is due to the lay-up of the specimen, where the outer-ply UD fibers
are oriented normal to the global x−direction. Thus, there is a high likelihood of
41
fiber-splitting at the imaging face which is perceptible in the longitudinal strain field after
1400 impact cycles. While the strain fields can provide cursory information on local areas
of large strain, this can be easily obscured by other regions of large deformation and noise
in the kinematic fields. Using VFM provides insight on where the material deviates from
mechanical equilibrium.
The resulting absolute EG maps are shown in Fig. 3.7 for samples with Nf = 1000,
1400, 1800 and 2000. Recall that since the location of the static point load was known,
calculated EG values were forced to N aN at that region. Using the minimal noise floor
threshold of 0.356 calculated in Sec. 3.3.4 and presented in Table 3.3, the maps were
adjusted such that only EG values calculated above the noise threshold were considered,
and damaged subsections were highlighted with a green arrow. While these maps are
difficult to interpret quantitatively due to violations of thin plate theory and its sensitivity
to stiffness variations [18], the EG signal relative to the noise threshold can still be used as
a measure of damage severity. The corresponding histogram of measured EG signals can be
seen in Fig. 3.8.
At Nf = 1000, no EG signals were recorded above the noise floor, which is further
explored in Sec. 3.4.2. Beginning at Nf = 1400, a signal can be measured and continues to
increase with increasing impact cycles, with the strongest signal recorded at the specimen
with the most impact cycles. No post-process filtering was applied to the EG maps,
indicating that the VFM analysis was sensitive enough to identify areas where global
constitutive properties were no longer valid at Nf ≥ 1400.
The regions with discernible EG signals are identical to the regions of interest in the xx
strain fields in Fig. 3.6, confirming that the EG analysis was able to accurately capture the
emergence of damage under low-cycle impact fatigue without the need for destructive
mechanical testing.
42
Figure 3.7 Absolute equilibrium gap (EG) maps obtained after increasing numbers of
impact fatigue cycles. Noise floor threshold of 0.356 is based on histograms shown in
Fig. 3.5.
Figure 3.8 Corresponding histograms of calculated absolute EG values from EG maps seen
in Fig. 3.7.
43
3.4.2 Validation with X-Ray Computed Tomography
In order to develop an understanding of the damaged regions observed in the EG maps,

samples that were impacted with 1000, 1400 and 2000 cycles were imaged using X-ray
computed tomography (XCT). Ply-interface images are seen in Fig. 3.9, where the labels
on the bottom-right edge of each window indicate the interface at which the image was
taken. Ply 1 refers to the impacted face, the label “1/2” represents the interface between
plies 1 and 2, “2/3” is the interface between plies 2 and 3, and so forth. Ply 8 is the rear
face of the specimen and the imaging face, and is the surface where the EG maps in
Fig. 3.7 were calculated.
Figure 3.9 Ply interface XCT images after Nf = 1000 (top), Nf = 1400 (center) and
Nf = 2000 (bottom).
44
Upon inspection, the Nf = 1000 specimen shows that minor inter-ply delaminations
were perceptible in the 5/6, 6/7 and 7/8 ply interfaces. One could argue that
delaminations also appear to be present in the 2/3 and 3/4 interfaces, but higher resolution
imaging is required to be certain. After Nf = 1400, delaminations are clearly visible in the
2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 6/7 and 7/8 interfaces, with less severe features visible in the 1/2 interface.
After 2000 impact cycles, interlaminar matrix delaminations are clearly seen through every
ply interface in the specimen. Furthermore, the area of delamination increases with
increasing impacts, clearly showing that the area of the damaged portion is increasing with
increasing impacts, and not just the depth of the damaged portion. Across all the
specimens presented, delaminations become more evident towards the rear-face of the
plate, at interfaces 5/6, 6/7 and 7/8. This aligns with what is presented in the literature,
where splintering of the rear ply can result from the the wave propagated through the
specimen under impact [49, 74]. Dorey [85] observed that under low-velocity impacts, a
composite laminate can respond by bending and failing in shear which results in inter-ply
delaminations; consistent with what is observed in Fig. 3.9.
A cross-sectional view of the post-mortem specimens is presented in Fig. 3.10, with the
impact face at ply 1, and the imaging face at ply 8. At 1000 impact fatigue cycles,
transverse cracks are observed at the middle plies (4-5), in a cone-shape beginning from the
side closest to impact and radiating outwards towards the rear. This agrees with what was
observed by Wyrick and Adams [74]. Minor delaminations at the 5/6 interface can also be
observed from this angle, consistent with what was seen in Fig. 3.9. After 1400 impact
cycles, transverse cracking from the 4-5 plies continue on to form delaminations at the 5/6
interface, and delaminations at other ply-interfaces are more clearly observed at the
cross-subsection. After 2000 impact fatigue cycles, multiple instances of transverse cracks
can be seen propagating through the thickness of the specimen, along with several observed
points of delamination. At Nf = 1400 and 2000, there is a combined major delamination at
the 7/8 ply and flexural failure [49] at ply 8 observed, labeled “DL+FF” in Fig. 3.10.
45
Figure 3.10 Cross-sectional view of XCT images for sample under increasing impact cycles,
with call-outs for regions with transverse cracks (TC), delaminations (DL) and flexural
failure (FF).
The results presented here show that the VFM and EG damage indicator were able to
resolve subsurface damage in the CFRP plate through surface strain measurements when
significant delaminations, cracking and flexural failure were present. It is important to note
that at Nf = 1000, damage occurred primarily around the mid-ply, hence the neutral axis
when under bending. Thus, damage was not resolved in the EG maps shown in Fig. 3.7
with the bending load case used here.
At Nf = 1400, 1800 and 2000, damage grew more extensively throughout the entire
thickness of the specimen. Thus, EG maps successfully showed an increase in relative
damage severity with increasing impact cycles.
3.5 Discussion
The results from Sec. 3.4 showed that considerable internal damage from delaminations,
transverse cracking and flexural failure was captured using DIC and VFM. As the frequency
and severity of the damage grew with increasing impact cycles, so did the signal measured
in the EG maps and EG histograms in Figs. 3.7 and 3.8; confirming that VFM was able to
capture the evolution of damage severity in the CFRP specimens. However, when damage
46
is localized around the middle ply of the laminate, such as in Nf = 1000, the bending load
case is not effective in revealing violations in mechanical equilibrium. This is a key
limitation of the static bending load as a test method, as bending stiffness will be largely
unaffected by damage near the neutral axis. The lack of sensitivity at Nf ≤ 1000 is likely
due to the bending configuration of the test and the minimal amount of damage present,
rather than the resolution of stereo-DIC. Hence applying other full-field measurement
techniques with greater resolution may only provide marginal improvement on the results.
While damage appeared to be evident in the xx fields, kinematic data alone only
highlights areas of large deformation and does not relate to the constitutive properties of
the material. Furthermore, looking at the xx fields would be far more likely to lead to false
positive identifications of damage. While VFM is not significantly more sensitive than
looking at strain fields alone for this simplistic loading case, VFM is substantially more
immune to false positives. The EG method allows violations in mechanical equilibrium to
be revealed, thus providing a more holistic understanding of material behavior with
increasing low-energy impact cycles under non-destructive testing.
In more complex loading cases, the damage may not be easily identifiable in the strain
fields, as was observed under single-impact at higher energies [18]. Consequently, the
following recommendations are made for future work: first, this technique should be
applied to impact-fatigued CFRP plates with more complex lay-ups, such as 2D and 3D
woven laminates, sandwich panels, etc. to confirm its efficacy on complicated damage
profiles. Next, different post-impact loading cases should also be investigated, considering
the damage centralized around the neutral axis in the Nf ≤ 1000 specimen that is
insensitive to static bending. In-plane loading such as tension or compression could allow
VFM to resolve damage in the EG maps at Nf ≤ 1000, provided the post-impact loading is
recoverable and does not propagate damage within the specimen. This could be
particularly useful for larger and thicker CFRP components, which would be more difficult
to load in bending. Finally, dynamic VFM could be investigated in the future for in-situ
47
damage detection under repetitive impact loading, where acceleration fields can be used as
a load cell [86]. This would provide a more accurate description of the onset of
irrecoverable damage, and how it propagates from cycle to cycle.
To the author’s knowledge, this is the first time VFM and the EG indicator have been
utilized as a damage indicator for LERI, or impact fatigue, thus paving the way for future
applications of the equilibrium gap indicator, such as those mentioned above.
A crucial advantage of this approach is that it is economical in both time and costs,
allowing several experiments to be performed and data to be analyzed in a short amount of
time without sacrificing the quality of the results. Relative subsurface damage severity can
be measured non-destructively using the calculated EG maps, and the damage evolution
can be observed with increasing impact cycles.
3.6 Conclusions
A non-destructive technique for evaluating subsurface, through-thickness damage using

the VFM was applied to low-cycle impact fatigued CFRP laminate specimens. Based upon
the work presented, the following conclusions are made:
• Stereo-DIC is effective in measuring out-of-plane deformation and surface strains

under low prescribed bending loads, without the need for damage propagation or
loading until failure.
• Damage evolution was successfully measured by using VFM to create a map of gaps
in local mechanical equilibrium, i.e. the equilibrium gap (EG). Under impact fatigue
at 2 J and 120 cycles/hr, EG signal strength grew with increasing impact cycles.
• A case study on the different virtual fields on desired results showed that great care
should be taken when choosing fields. Particular attention should be paid to sample
geometry, loading configuration and expected damage profile when selecting the
virtual field.
48
• Both strain window (SW) size and control window (CW) size can affect the
resolution and computational time of the technique, and a parameterization study
showed that SW, CW = 5, 6 was found to be optimal for this application.
• XCT images showed that transverse cracking, delaminations and flexural failure were
present in all the impacted specimens considered, which became more frequent and
severe as the number of impact cycles increased.
• EG maps and images from XCT confirmed that the VFM was able to detect damage
resulting from combined delaminations and flexural failure at the 7/8 ply interface,
beginning at Nf = 1400 impact cycles at 2 J.
49
CHAPTER 4
COMBINED IMPACT FATIGUE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONING
RESPONSE OF CFRP
This chapter is based on a manuscript in preparation.

Isabella Mendoza1 and Leslie Lamberson2
4.1 Introduction
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) are in high demand for their high stiffness
and strength-to-weight ratios, making them excellent manufacturing materials for
applications in the automotive, military, and aerospace industries. Advanced
manufacturing techniques have also been developed to allow for intricate and complex
component geometries. Compared to their metallic counterparts, CFRPs have also been
proven to have improved oxidation resistance, increasing interest in their applications for
naval ships and submarines [87]. Unfortunate events brought carbon fiber into the media
spotlight, when the OceanGate Expeditions Titan submersible with a composite hull had
imploded under deep-sea pressures [4, 5]. This catastrophe emphasizes the need for
data-driven material selection and design, particularly with the damage response of CFRPs
in combined mechanical and environmental loading conditions.
Historically, navies from different nations began to install composite structures on their
submarines in the 1950s in order to improve acoustic transparency and protect
communication antennae [87]. This activity brought investigations into the long-term aging
environmental conditioning of CFRPs and its effect on structural integrity. In 1996,
Parvatareddy et al. [88] explored the impact damage resistance tolerance of CFRP
specimens that were subjected to environmental aging. They used ultrasound C-scanning
1
Primary author, performed all experimental testing and analysis for the current work.
2
Primary investigator, Associate Professor and Director of the X-STRM Lab at Colorado School of Mines.
Provided thesis supervision for primary author, facilities for testing and analysis capabilities.
50
and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) to observe damage severity, and found that aging
time, temperature, and oxygen concentration in the environment significantly affects the
impact resistance of their CFRP specimens. Tension-after-impact tests also showed that
aged samples failed at much lower elongation, proving that mechanical properties were
degraded due to accelerated aging. In 2005, Maxwell et al. [89] developed a good practices
guide for the accelerated environmental aging of polymers, which stated that most
polymeric materials that absorb moisture may experience the following detrimental effects:
swelling, a reduction in material glass transition temperature, surface degradation or
damage, and a decrease in mechanical properties. These effects continued to be observed
and investigated by researchers throughout the years. For instance, Pérez-Pacheco et al.
[90] investigated the effect of humid environments on carbon fiber/epoxy laminates,
specifically the effects of moisture absorption on the damage mechanisms present. They
observed that absorbed moisture led to decreased interfacial strength between the carbon
fiber and epoxy matrix, resulting in an overall decrease in the performance of the
composite.
The effects of accelerated environmental aging coupled with dynamic mechanical
loading conditions became an increasingly popular field of study with fiber-reinforced
polymer laminates [91–97]. Specifically with carbon fiber-reinforced plastics,
Chavez Morales and Eliasson [94] explored the mode-II dynamic fracture response of
carbon fiber/epoxy laminates after absorbing over 1 wt.% of distilled water. They designed
both natural aging and accelerated aging environmental chambers, with the latter having
distilled water kept at an elevated temperature to quicken moisture uptake. Key results
showed that moisture absorption degraded the matrix-dominated material properties,
leading to a decrease in dynamic mode-II fracture toughness. Additionally, no observable
difference between the naturally-aged and accelerated-aged specimens was found.
Pittman and Lamberson [95] investigated the effect of both distilled water and ASTM
standard seawater moisture absorption on the Mode-I dynamic fracture behavior of
51
unidirectional CFRP plates. The maximum moisture absorption recorded was 2.87 wt. %
after four months of soaking in distilled water kept at elevated temperature of 70◦ C. Even
just after 0.071% moisture absorption, the dynamic fracture toughness of the specimens
decreased by over 50%. At their maximum moisture absorption of over 2.2 wt %, mode-I
dynamic fracture toughness decreased by almost 80%. These results are a clear indication
of the degrading effects of humidity to the dynamic mechanical properties of CFRPs. An
interesting finding was that the decrease in dynamic fracture toughness between samples
soaked in distilled water versus seawater were statistically insignificant, suggesting that for
CFRP specimens, the absorption of moisture itself played a bigger role than the type of
water being absorbed. Additionally, Pittman and Lamberson investigated the effect of
moisture removal on the damage mechanisms present, and found that moisture absorption
led to irreversible damage to the polymer matrix, even after the moisture was removed by
desiccation.
4.1.1 Impact Response of CFRP After Environmental Conditioning
With respect to the impact resistance of CFRPs after hygrothermal degradation,

several works have been published studying the environmental conditioning of the low and
high-velocity impact response of carbon/epoxy specimens [12–15], though a unified view of
the effective results still remains to be seen, which could be attributed to the wide variety
of available resin systems, laminate lay-up, and sample geometry. For instance, Aoki et al.
[15] performed drop-weight impact tests on unidirectional CF plates with a quasi-isotropic
lay-up subjected to water absorption up to 1.36 wt %. After impact experiments,
ultrasound C-scanning was used to observe international delaminations. ASTM standard
compression-after-impact (CAI) tests [16] at temperatures ranging from -54◦ C to 177◦ C
were also performed to measure the residual compressive strength post-impact. Their
findings showed that at room temperature, the CAI strength of hygrothermally degraded
specimens was actually greater than that of the pristine/dry samples, suggesting water
sustains additional load. Similar results regarding the positive influence of environmental
52
conditioning on CFRP laminates under a single low-velocity impact appear in literature
[98–100].
However, there are also published works that suggest environmental conditioning plays
a negative role in the impact response of CFRPs. Ahmad et al. [96] studied the impact
resistance of unidirectional CFRP plates under impact loading at 23.62 J after
hygrothermal degradation. They found that moisture content significantly affected the
measured residual energy, peak force, residual energy, and strains, with the fully-saturated
specimen at 1.42 wt. % presenting the lowest measured peak force. They also determined
that plate stiffness decreased with increasing moisture content, while delamination size
increased. Liu et al. [13] performed high velocity impacts on environmentally conditioned
CFRPs at a maximum impact velocity of 300 m/s, and found that delamination area
increased with aging time. Dale et al. [101] performed CAI tests on carbon/vinylester
composites with a plain weave lay-up and found that CAI strength decreased with
moisture absorption. Selzer and Friedrich [102] ascertained that matrix-dominated
properties decreased after immersion in distilled water, while changes in fiber-dominated
properties were not detectable. Fracture surfaces showed interfacial failure, and they
determined that moisture uptake led to poor adhesion at the fiber-matrix interface.
Other existing works suggest that environmental conditioning may have no effect at all
on residual mechanical properties [103, 104], further signifying the need to elucidate the
effects of hygrothermal degradation on CFRP laminates under impact loading.
It should also be noted that among the sparse collection in literature regarding
combined environmental and impact loading of CFRPs, most if not all works consider
single-impact loading that results in visible perforation on the rear-face of the specimen.
Moreover, while several works consider the post-impact fatigue behavior of CFRPs
[97, 105, 106], to the author’s knowledge, none investigate the effects of environmental
conditioning on subsurface or barely-visible impact damage (BVID) resulting from
low-energy impact fatigue, as examined here.
53
4.1.2 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Detection
BVID detection in composite components typically involve non-destructive evaluation

(NDE) techniques like ultrasound C-scan and XCT [15, 53–55]. Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) has also been used to observe damage due to environmental
conditioning on the microscale [14, 95]. However, these methods can be costly due to the
equipment necessary to characterize specimens. Moreover, the aforementioned NDEs do
not offer any information about the kinematic response of the material.
The use of full-field optical metrology for impact damage detection has gained interest
in the last few years, taking advantage of modern measurement techniques to extract
kinematic response. Flores et al. [35] used high-speed imaging and stereo-digital image
correlation (DIC) to capture in-situ displacement and strains under single, low-velocity
impacts in CFRPs. Devivier et al. [18] used deflectometry to measure surface slopes of a
post-impact specimen loaded in static bending. Using the virtual fields method (VFM), a
damage indicator was developed by revealing gaps in mechanical equilibrium on the surface
of the specimen. Previous work by the author further advanced this technique by applying
it to impact fatigued CFRP specimens under ambient conditions [107], and a similar
methodology is applied to hygrothermally degraded specimens. This technique is briefly
recalled in the next section.
4.1.3 The Virtual Fields Method (VFM) and Equilibrium Gap (EG) Indicator
VFM leverages heterogenous data extracted from full-field kinematic measurements.

This is a key advantage over traditional mechanical test methods that often require
uniform loads and strains for analysis [23, 83]. VFM is based on the principle of virtual
work, derived from the weak form of the equation of motion:
Z Z Z Z
∗ ∗ ∗
− σij εij dV + Ti ui dS + bi ui dV = ρai u∗i dV ∀ u∗i KA (4.1)
| V {z } |S {z V } | V {z }
where:
54
σij : stresses
u∗i : virtual displacements
∗ij : virtual strains
Ti : boundary tractions
bi : body forces
ai : accelerations
ρ: density
Considering constitutive relations under static equilibrium, accelerations and body

forces can be neglected, further simplifying Eq. 4.1 into Eq. 4.2:
Z Z
∗
Cijkl εkl εij dV = Ti u∗i dS (4.2)
V S
where experimental strains (ij ) are now considered. When global material properties
(Cijkl ) are known, Eq. 4.2 can be used as a test function to reveal locations of damage
where global constitutive properties are violated. This known as the equilibrium gap (EG)
indicator, presented in Eq. 4.3:
Z Z
EG = Cijkl εkl ε∗ij dS − Ti u∗i dS (4.3)
S S
The EG value is a measure of deviation from mechanical equilibrium, and can be used
to measure relative damage severity between specimens, as had been proven in Chapter 3.
Interested readers are referred to literature for a detailed derivation and formulation of the
EG indicator [18, 43, 82, 83].
4.2 Experimental Procedure

4.2.1 Material Selection
Commercially-available quasi-isotropic CFRP plates from RockWest Composites were

used for this study, with material properties listed in Table 4.1. The specimen plate is
shown in Fig. 4.1, where the 0◦ outer fibers are aligned along the global y-axis, and the
laminate stacking direction (or through-thickness direction) is along the global z-axis.
55
Table 4.1 Material properties and sample geometry [77].
Lay-up [0/45/90/-45]s
Thickness 2.5 mm
Carbon fiber modulus 228 GPa
RockWest SKU 48411
Fiber volume 65%
Figure 4.1 Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer plate as-received from RockWest Composites.
4.2.2 Environmental Conditioning
Accelerated aging was performed on the CFRP specimens by submerging them in large
aluminum water tanks filled with distilled water, as shown in Fig. 4.2. A belt heater was
attached to the exterior surface of the tanks and used to heat the water to a temperature
of 70±1◦ C. The elevated temperature allowed for accelerated moisture uptake by the
specimen, as had been proven in literature [89]. Five plates were designated control
specimens for measuring water absorption (Mt ), which was calculated using Eq. 4.4:
Wt − W0
Mt = × 100 (4.4)
W0
where W0 is the weight of the dry, pristine specimen and Wt is the measured weight of the
soaked specimen at time t. Water uptake was measured periodically using a precision
56
balance with an accuracy of 0.1 mg. Two sets of soaking conditions were considered:
short-term soaking, which corresponded to a moisture absorption of Mt ≈ 1%, and
long-term soaking, with Mt ≈ 2%. These values were chosen considering extensive
literature, described in Sec. 4.1. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) was used after
soaking to observe internal hygrothermal degradation.
Figure 4.2 Environmental conditioning pot filled with distilled water heated to a
temperature of 70◦ C.
4.2.3 Impact Fatigue Loading
Low-cycle repetitive impact experiments were performed using a patented dynamic

fatigue device (DFD) [78, 107]. A 300 g steel projectile 12.7 mm in diameter and 300 mm
in length with a hemispherical tip was spring-launched into the center of the CFRP plate
at a speed of 3.6 m/s, resulting in an impact energy of 2 J. Two rigid steel plates with a
127 mm × 127 mm square cut-out were clamped around the specimen, as seen in Fig. 4.3.
After every impact, the projectile was automatically reloaded using an Arduino-controlled
wheel motor. Impacts were carried out at an impact rate of 120 cycles/hr, ensuring that no
57
inter-impact wave interactions. The maximum number of impact cycles performed was
Nf = 2000, and impact fatigue damage was investigated at Nf = 1000, 1400 and 2000.
After the designated number of cycles was completed, the rear-face surface of the specimen
was prepped for digital image correlation. The surface was cleaned gently with isopropyl
alcohol, painted a matte white surface, and finally speckled using matte black spray paint.
Figure 4.3 Schematic of boundary conditions and loading configuration for impact fatigue
loading.
4.2.4 Post-Impact Bending with Digital Image Correlation (DIC)
Digital image correlation (DIC) was used to extract surface strains from the
post-impact specimen while loaded in static bending. DIC uses cameras to track the
deformation of random speckle patterns on the surface of a specimen and measure
displacements and subsequently, strains. DIC can be applied on a wide variety of surface
finishes making it one of the most commonly used kinematic measurement methods in
experimental mechanics [31, 108].
Post-impact specimens were placed in a bending rig with pinned boundary conditions
on the upper-right, lower-right and lower-left corners, as seen in Fig. 4.4. A static point
load was applied to impacted surface, causing the plate to be deflected 6.35 mm
out-of-plane. Two FLIR Blackfly S cameras with 50 mm lenses were used to capture a
58
reference image when the plate was at rest, and a deformed image when the plate was
deflected. Stereo-DIC was then used to measure out-of-plane displacements. Imaging and
DIC parameters can be found in Table 4.2. After imaging with DIC, a 1 in.× 1 in. area
around the impact site of chosen specimens was cut using a high-speed diamond saw for
X-ray computed tomography (XCT) using a Zeiss Xradia Versa 520 micro-CT.
Figure 4.4 Schematic of boundary conditions and loading configuration for impact fatigue
loading.
4.2.5 Using VFM as a Damage Indicator
In practice, the integrals in Eq. 4.3 must be approximated as summations to be applied

to kinematic data:
Npts
X
EG = n
Cijkl εnkl ε∗n
ij (4.5)
n=1
where N is the number of data points in a control window. The virtual fields were chosen
such that u∗i = 0 around the perimeter of the control window such as in Sec. 3.3.2,
removing tractions altogether from Eq. 4.3. The selected virtual fields can be seen below,
with a visual representation seen in Fig. 4.5.
u∗x = (1 − x2 )(1 − y 2 ) ε∗xx = 2x(y 2 − 1)

u∗y = 0 ε∗yy = 0
ε∗xy = y(x2 − 1)
59
Table 4.2 Imaging parameters used in stereo-DIC analysis.
Camera model FLIR Blackfly S

Bit-depth 8-bit
Lens 50 mm
Stereo angle 13.6◦
Exposure time 15 ms
Software MatchID Stereo v 2023
Calibration error 0.44%
Subset size 31 px
Step size 10 px
Correlation Criterion ZNSSD
Interpolation Function Quadratic
Pre-filtering Gaussian (k = 5)
Displacement resolution 0.09 mm
Strain convention Log. Euler-Almansi
Strain window 5
Virtual Strain Gauge 71 px
Strain Interpolation Quadrilateral 4
Figure 4.5 Virtual fields selected for equilibrium gap analysis, with u∗y = 0.
As EG scales with stress measurements, the results were normalized by Eq. 4.6:
q
(Cxx xx,max )2 + (Cyy yy,max )2 + (Cxy xy,max )2 (4.6)
60
4.2.6 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact (CAI) ASTM Tests
Finally, post-impact ASTM standard compression-after-impact (CAI) tests [16] were

performed on select specimens to corroborate the residual compressive strength of the
CFRP laminates with the analysis from VFM. A Boeing Compression After Impact Test
Fixture sourced from Wyoming Test Fixtures was used to complete preliminary CAI
experiments. The post-impact specimens were cut into 152.4 in. × 101.6 in. rectangular
coupons using a high-speed diamond precision saw. The CAI fixture consists of clamping
the top and bottom edges of the plate, while the sides were clamped with a knife’s edge
configuration. Once the specimen was secured, the fixture was placed in a load frame with
a 445 kN limit with parallel compression platens, as seen in Fig. 4.6. A pre-load of 400 N
was applied, followed by displacement-controlled load at a rate of 0.5 mm/min. The
specimen was loaded in compression until failure.
Figure 4.6 Experimental set-up for compression-after-impact (CAI) tests.
61
4.3 Results
4.3.1 Hygrothermal Degradation of Specimens
The moisture absorption versus time curve of the 5 control specimens are presented in
Fig. 4.7, along with the data on a log-log scale and linear trendfit. As mentioned previously,
short-term soaking corresponds to a moisture absorption of ≈ 1%, which occurred at 387
hours. Long-term soaked samples correspond to water uptake of ≈ 2% and occurred at
1709 hours. The maximum recorded absorption value was 2.52% after 2645 hours.
Surface degradation was visible on long-term soaked specimens. Subsurface bubbling
was first observed after soaking at t = 1600 hours, with a measured water absorption of
1.93 wt.%, shown in Fig. 4.8. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans indicated that
these bubbles were due to separation between plies, as seen in Fig. 4.9. These interfacial
separations were more prevalent at the outermost plies, which had the highest surface area
exposed to moisture when submerged in distilled water. Interfacial voids occurred in
between plies, which can also be described as delaminations but caused purely by moisture
absorption, unlike impact-induced delaminations such as those observed in Chapter 3.
4.3.2 Full-Field Kinematics and VFM
Longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear strain fields for all specimens were
successfully extracted using DIC as described in Sec. 4.2.4. Strain maps for ambient,
short-term soaked, and long-term soaked specimens after 2000 impact cycles are presented
in Fig. 4.10.
The EG maps for both ambient and hygrothermally degraded post-impact specimens
are found in Fig. 4.11. A micromechanics model adopted from Chamis [109] was used to
estimate degraded matrix stiffness, however calculated EG values using pristine versus
degraded stiffness was negligible. This is likely due to the high fiber content and
quasi-isotropic lay-up of the CFRP plates.
62
Figure 4.7 Moisture absorption by wt. %, with call-outs for absorption values at designated
short-term soaked samples, long-term soaked samples, and maximum recorded water
uptake (above) and absorption data on a log-log scale, with linear trendline fit (below).
EG maps for environmentally conditioned samples were compared to ambient

specimens taken from previous work [107] after Nf = 1000, 1400 and 2000 impacts. At
ambient conditions, CFRP specimens had a maximum EG value of approximately 0.8 at
Nf = 2000. After short-term soaking, the maximum EG value increased to approximately
1.2. After long-term soaking, the |EG|max value increased even further to roughly 4 after
the same number of impact cycles. Ambient samples showed a clear trend of growing EG
signal with increasing impact cycles. However, this same trend was not immediately
perceptible in the EG maps for the short-soaked and long-soaked specimens.
63
Figure 4.8 Subsurface delaminations resulting from long-term moisture absorption.
Figure 4.9 XCT scans of long-term soaked sample between first and second ply, with
call-outs of subsurface separation between plies. These images were taken between the
outermost ply and the adjacent ply.
With short-term soaking, the general shape and length of the damaged area measured
in EG maps did not vary after Nf = 1000, 1400 and 2000 impacts. In fact, the size and
shape of the damaged region in all short-term soaked specimens was similar to that of an
ambient specimen impacted 2000 times.
64
Figure 4.10 Longitudinal, transverse, and in-plane shear strain maps (in millistrain) for
ambient, short-term soaked and long-term soaked specimens after Nf = 2000.
Figure 4.11 Equilibrium gap maps for all conditions and impact cycles, with ambient EG
maps taken from Chapter 3.
65
On the other hand, long-term soaked specimens all exhibited a change in damaged area
shape compared to short-term soaked and ambient EG maps. The damaged region was
clearly longer. This suggests a longer region of fiber splitting at the imaging face compared
to the ambient and short-term soaked specimens. Soaked samples also exhibited detectable
EG signals throughout the entirety of the maps outside of the impact zone. These could be
attributed to material degradation due to moisture absorption throughout the specimen.
This is supported by the subsurface moisture-induced delaminations shown in Fig. 4.8.
Overall results from all specimens and conditions are summarized in Fig. 4.12. Here,
the maximum EG value measured within the damaged region of each specimen is plotted
versus the number of impact cycles. The noise floor that was identified in Sec. 3.3.4 is
highlighted in gray. Ambient specimens with Nf < 1400 are observed to be within the
noise floor and did not show any resolvable damage in the EG maps, as shown in the
appendix. At Nf ≥ 1400, maximum EG signal increases with increasing impact cycles.
Short-term soaked specimens all have |EG|max values above the noise threshold, but do
not show an obvious trend with increasing impact cycles. Long-term soaked samples also
all have maximum EG values above the noise floor, even after 500 impact cycles. At
Nf = 2000, the greatest EG signal among all tested specimens was recorded.
A new damage parameter, D is defined such that both intensity and shape measured in
EG maps are taken into account. Considering that all specimens in the study have the
same geometry, composition, and are subjected to the same loading configuration, the only
unique variables are the measured EG values and the length of the longest dimension of the
damage profile seen in EG maps. Thus, the damage parameter is simplified to Eq. 4.7:
D = |EG|max × length (4.7)
D was calculated for ambient and soaked samples at Nf = 1000, 1400 and 2000, then
normalized with respect to the Dmax recorded across all specimens considered. This is
presented in Fig. 4.13.
66
Figure 4.12 Maximum |EG| values for all specimens with resolvable damage across all
environmental conditions and impact cycles tested.
Figure 4.13 Damage parameter, D for ambient and soaked specimens at designated impact
cycles of interest.
67
At Nf = 1000, there was no measurable damage in ambient specimens, thus D = 0.
After short-term and long-term soaking, damage was perceptible, resulting in D values of
0.17 and 0.16, respectively. At Nf = 1400, ambient specimens had an average measured
damage value of D = 0.03. After short-term soaking (≈ 1% moisture absorption),
D increased by a factor of 4.3 to 0.13. After long-term soaking (≈ 2% absorption), average
D increased to 0.41; a factor of 13.7. At Nf = 2000, ambient samples had an average
D = 0.07. Short-term soaking increased by 2.3× to D = 0.16. Long-term soaking increased
this further to D = 1.0; a factor of 14.3.
A cross-section XCT scan of the long-term soaked sample post-impact is presented in
Fig. 4.14. After 500 impacts, extensive delamination and interfacial separation can be
observed, though it is difficult to determine exactly which delaminations were due to
moisture absorption, and which were a result of the impact fatigue loads.
Three-dimensional XCT scans of all available long-term soaked samples can be seen in
Fig. 4.15, where major ply separation and transverse cracks are observed at Nf = 500, 1400
and 2000.
Figure 4.14 XCT side-view of long-term soaked specimen after 500 impact cycles.
4.3.3 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact ASTM Tests
Exploratory CAI results were analyzed in two steps: first, the specimen was visually
inspected around the impact site to confirm the presence of local buckling and failure due
to delaminations under compression. Otherwise, the specimen likely failed in the grips of
68
the CAI test fixture, which is still considered a result as per the ASTM standard [16]. In
the case of the failure within the grips, it impact damage is assumed not sufficient enough
to induce local buckling failure at the impact site. Next, mechanical properties such as
ultimate compressive strength, strain at failure, and elastic stiffness were calculated only
for specimens where local buckling occurred. A full list of specimens and their CAI results
are listed in Table 4.3.
Figure 4.15 Three-dimensional XCT reconstruction of long-term soaked specimens (all with
moisture absorption of ≥1.93%).
Post-mortem CAI images for ambient specimens after Nf = 1000, 1400, 1800 and 2000
are presented in Fig. 4.16. The impact zone is highlighted with a red circle in the center of
the plate, while an orange dashed line indicates the path of failure from the CAI test. It is
clear that the failure path did not overlap with the impacted area. As such, this suggests
that any impact fatigue damage within the impact zone was not the dominant failure
mechanism when ambient plates were loaded in compression. Local buckling around the
impact site was not observed in any ambient samples, with the exception of the Nf = 3000
sample.
69
Table 4.3 List of ambient and hygrothermally degraded samples used for CAI testing.
Environment Impact cycles Total no. of Impact-induced local

Condition Nf samples tested buckling failure
Ambient 0 3 No
Ambient 1000 3 No
Ambient 1200 1 No
Ambient 1250 1 No
Ambient 1300 1 No
Ambient 1400 3 No
Ambient 1800 1 No
Ambient 2000 3 No
Ambient 3000 1 Yes
Short-term soaked 1400 1 Yes
Short-term soaked 2000 1 Yes
Long-term soaked 1400 1 Yes
Figure 4.16 Post-mortem CAI ambient specimens subjected after various impact loading
cycles. Red circle shows the impact site. Orange dashed line represents failure location.
Conversely, post-impact environmentally conditioned specimens all exhibited local

buckling failure at the impact zone, shown in Fig. 4.17. This suggests that moisture
absorption played a key role in inducing localized failure due to the extent of delaminations
70
at the impact zone. This is supported by the EG maps, where a clear damage signal was
recorded in all soaked samples. This is further supported by the subsurface degradation
from moisture shown in Figs. 4.8 and 4.9, where decreased interfacial strength between
plies resulted in local buckling at the impact zone during CAI tests.
Figure 4.17 CAI damage progression at the impact site for long-term soaked sample after
Nf = 1400.
Calculated stiffness values from stress-strain data did not show any statistically
significant differences between ambient, short-soaked, or long-soaked specimens.
Short-term and long-term soaked samples impacted 1400 times were compared to the
ambient specimen impacted 3000 times, as it was the only ambient sample that failed due
to local buckling under compression. While stiffness values were comparable between the
three conditions, strain at failure and ultimate CAI strength varied. Values recorded from
soaked specimens were compared to those of an ambient sample after Nf = 3000, listed in
Table 4.4. After short-term soaking and 1400 impact cycles, residual strength decreased by
23% and strain at failure decreased by 10%. Long-term soaking after 1400 impact cycles
resulted in a residual strength decrease of 20%, while strain at failure also dropped by 20%.
71
These preliminary findings indicate that hygrothermal degradation plays a bigger role in
CFRP residual strength and peak strain, as opposed to the number of impact cycles
prescribed. However, the presence of moisture does not significantly affect the elastic
stiffness of the material.
Table 4.4 List of ambient and hygrothermally degraded samples used for CAI testing.
Environment Impact cycles Residual Strain at

Condition Nf strength failure
Ambient 3000 236 MPa 0.85%
Short-term soaked 1400 192 MPa 0.77%
Long-term soaked 1400 197 MPa 0.71%
4.4 Discussion
Relative damage severity in the EG maps increased after specimens absorbed moisture,
even after ≈ 1% water uptake. After ≥ 1.93% moisture absorption, the EG maps showed
much greater damage severity compared to the ambient and short-term soaked specimens.
The damage parameter accounting for both severity and shape measured in EG maps
showed that at Nf = 1000, measured damage was similar between the short-term and
long-term soaked specimen. At 1400 and 2000 impact cycles, the effect between short-term
and long-term soaking is apparent. After ≈ 1% moisture absorption, damage increased by
2 to 5 times compared to ambient specimens. Further soaking to ≈ 2% absorption
increased damage by an order of magnitude to 14 to 15 times. This increase in damage
severity is supported by the XCT scans taken of environmentally conditioned samples,
where subsurface delamination and ply separation was observed. This suggests that when
hygrothermally degraded, water absorption causes a decrease in interfacial strength within
laminate plies, leaving behind voids and delaminations, thus weakening the overall
structural integrity of the CFRP plate. When the weakened structure is then loaded under
impact fatigue, pre-existing flaws create new paths for subsurface delaminations and
become catalysts for damage propagation within the specimen, resulting in larger regions
72
of fiber-splitting measured by the EG maps. Considering specimens were impacted after
allowing moisture to evaporate in ambient conditions for several days, this suggests that
any damage induced solely by moisture absorption was irrecoverable even after the
moisture was removed, confirming the findings of Pittman and Lamberson [95] as well as
other studies that found environmental conditioning to be detrimental [13, 96, 101, 102].
However, as mentioned previously, there are still several works in literature that have
found moisture absorption to be advantageous for the impact response of CFRPs [98–100].
In order to make a suitable comparison with the findings of the current work, a few things
must be discussed about what has already been published. First, it should be noted that
all studies (to the author’s knowledge) regarding the positive influence of moisture
absorption in mechanical properties in CFRPs only consider single-impact loading. Impact
energies ranged from 9 J up to 45 J, which is much greater than the impact loads studied
here, and resulted in damage visible from the surface with the naked eye. Next, damage
was measured in-situ using instrumented drop tower tests, and common measured
parameters involved peak load, absorbed energy, time to peak load, and absorbed energy.
While these are all useful and measurable mechanical responses, they may not provide
substantial insight into the post-mortem response of the material post-impact. As such,
these factors are more appropriate evaluating the damage initiation of CFRPs under
combined impact and environmental loading, as opposed to damage propagation or
evolution, as is the motivation behind the current work.
There is sufficient evidence that demonstrates moisture absorption can be beneficial for
FRPs. Some suggest it is due to the absorbed water acting as a medium that can support
extra load [62], and others attribute this improvement to the increased compliance and
ductility of the laminates [99, 100]. However, results from the current work propose that
such mechanisms may not be present under low-energy repetitive impacts, or impact
fatigue. Current findings showed that residual strength and strain at failure from CAI tests
decreased once CFRP specimens absorbed ≥0.89% moisture, even though the ambient
73
specimen underwent more than twice the number of impacts. The detrimental effects of
water uptake was also clearly visible in the XCT scans, where the severity and frequency of
delaminations increased when compared to an ambient sample loaded with the same
number of impacts [107]. Finally, EG maps under post-mortem static bending showed a
distinct increase in damage severity as specimens absorbed more moisture, along with
greater measured damaged regions in long-term soaked specimens. As such, it can be
postulated that the coupling of environmental and impact fatigue loading in this case
results in more severe structural degradation than if the loads were considered separately.
The damage parameter presented in Sec. 4.3 currently only takes into account the
maximum measured EG value and length of the longest dimension of damage in the EG
maps. This is because samples were all identical in lay-up, geometry, loading configuration,
and width of damaged regions measured in the EG maps. Future work may wish to
consider varying impact energy, specimen thickness and projectile tup radius, which are
parameters that can be integrated into Eq. 4.7. Consequently, the damage length term in
Eq. 4.7 would need to be replaced with the measured area of the damage region. Applying
these changes would allow a rigorous investigation of impact fatigue under different impact
energies, specimen thickness and projectile sizes, filling in the gaps regarding the damage
evolution in CFRPs from repetitive impact loading.
A comprehensive XCT investigation of post-mortem impact fatigued and
hygrothermally degraded CFRP specimens at very low cycles may also be considered for
future work. As literature has only considered single-impact cases and no unified view of
the beneficial or detrimental effects of moisture absorption exists, a deeper study into
repeated impacts after water uptake can help bridge the gap in this area. Additional CAI
tests may also be considered, although XCT and CAI will require significant additional
resources due to the number of specimens required and necessary equipment time. This
highlights the advantage of the methodology presented here using full-field kinematic
measurements and the virtual fields method: damage assessed by non-destructive means
74
while still extracting key kinematic and constitutive response from the material.
Furthermore, the location of BVID within the specimen does not need to be known a
priori, unlike XCT and CAI. Thus, the technique developed here allows damage to be
located and measured all within a single analysis.
4.5 Conclusions
A novel investigation of the combined effects of impact fatigue and environmental

conditioning on CFRP plates was developed using full-field kinematic measurements and
the virtual fields method. These results were compared to observations made using
traditional damage evaluation techniques, namely X-ray computed tomography and
preliminary compression-after-impact tests. Based upon the work presented, the following
conclusions are made:
• Stereo-DIC was effective in measuring out-of-plane kinematic fields under low

prescribed bending loads without propagating subsurface damage
• Intensity and shape of damaged regions in ambient and environmentally conditioned

samples was successfully measured using the equilibrium gap (EG) indicator.
• A novel damage parameter was developed taking into account EG intensity and
damage size. After ≈ 1% moisture absorption, damage increased 2-5 times ambient.
At 2% moisture absorption, damage increased by an order of magnitude to 14-15
times ambient.
• Samples that absorbed ≥ 1.93% moisture showed subsurface delaminations purely

from the water uptake. These were prevalent at the outermost plies.
• XCT scans of long-term environmentally conditions specimens showed extensive

delamination and ply separation after 500 impact cycles.
• Ambient condition specimens did not exhibit local buckling failure under CAI
loading, with the exception of the Nf = 3000 specimen.
75
• At Nf = 1400, both short-term and long-term soaked specimens exhibited local
buckling failure under CAI loading.
• Calculated elastic stiffness under CAI did not show any detectable changes between
ambient and soaked samples, but residual strength and strain at failure decreased in
both short-term and long-term soaked specimens, compared to the ambient Nf =
3000 sample.
76
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
While Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are written as standalone journal articles, the findings from
each chapter all work cohesively to elucidate the impact damage response of CFRPs.
Namely, the combined effects of impact fatigue loading and environmental conditioning on
CFRP specimens, and measuring damage severity using the virtual fields method through
equilibrium gap maps. All findings from this thesis are categorized and listed below.
5.1 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements of CFRP
In Chapter 2, a technique that had only previously been applied to aluminum in this
way was successfully applied for the first time on CFRP laminates: infrared deflectometry.
On specimens with surface roughness values of σ ≤ 1.5 µm, IR deflectometry was
successful in measuring high spatial resolution out-of-plane slopes and strains while the
specimen was loaded in bending. Experimental strain field results were compared to a FE
model developed using ABAQUS/CAE, and were found to be within an order of
magnitude agreement. To improve contrast of the reflected IR grid, metallic spray paint
was applied to the surface of the CFRP sample. This successfully increased the measured
contrast of grayscale values using the IR camera and increased the thermal range of the
images by approximately 19%. As such, IR deflectometry is an effective way to measure
strains in thin CFRP plates under bending with low surface roughness.
When specimens have a surface roughness σ ≥ 1.5 µm, other full-field measurement
techniques must be employed. The technique chosen for the current work was digital image
correlation (DIC), a well-established technique in experimental mechanics. While DIC has
a lower spatial resolution than IR deflectometry under bending, surface strains were still
successfully measured on CFRP specimens under an applied bending load. Thus, the
strength of DIC is its ability to be used on a wide variety of surface finishes and extensive
77
documentation, such as the DIC good practices guide [108], which is not available for
techniques like IR deflectometry.
5.2 Damage Tolerancing for Impact Fatigue and Environmental Conditioning
Chapters 3 and 4 explored the use of the virtual fields method (VFM) and the
equilibrium gap (EG) indicator as a damage measurement on CFRP plates loaded in
impact fatigue and hygrothermal degradation. Specimens that were considered only under
ambient conditions were studied in Chapter 3, and showed that damage evolution was
successfully measured using EG to create a map of gaps in local mechanical equilibrium.
Under impact fatigue loads of 2 J and 120 cycles/hr, EG signal strength grew with
increasing impact cycles beginning at Nf = 1400. XCT was able to corroborate the results
from EG maps with extensive delaminations, transverse cracking and flexural failure. The
frequency and severity of these damage mechanisms grew with increasing EG signal
strength.
When the addition of environmental effects was considered, EG signal grew with
increase moisture absorption. Specimens that absorbed approximately 1% of water had
higher measured EG values compared to ambient specimens that underwent the same
number of impact cycles. Samples that absorbed ≥ 1.93% of water had even greater EG
values, as well as larger damaged regions measured on EG maps. A new damage parameter
accounting for the severity and shape measured via the EG maps was developed. Results
indicated that damage increased two to five-fold after approximately 1% moisture
absorption compared to ambient specimens and by a full order of magnitude after
approximately 2% absorption. Based on these results, water absorption showed a clear
detrimental effect on the impact fatigue response of CFRPs. Even prior to repetitive
impact loading, inter-ply delaminations from long-term water uptake was observed via
XCT, proving that moisture absorption decreased interfacial strength. These flaws were
further exacerbated by the impact fatigue loading, causing some ply interfaces to
completely separate, as was observed in Fig. 4.15.
78
An exploratory investigation using compression-after-impact (CAI) tests was also
performed on post-impact fatigued specimens that were subject to both ambient and
environmentally loaded conditions beforehand. CAI results showed that ambient specimens
did not exhibit local buckling failure under CAI, with the exception of the Nf = 3000
specimen. Conversely, all environmentally conditioned samples exhibited local buckling
failure at the impact zone under CAI. This indicates that the decreased interfacial strength
led to failure at the impact zone. Under CAI, the calculated elastic stiffness had no
detectable change between ambient and environmentally conditioned specimens. However,
residual strength and strain at failure both decreased after both short-term and long-term
soaking.
These results support the claim that moisture absorption in CFRPs are detrimental to
their mechanical properties, which has been observed in literature [13, 96, 101, 102]. All
the techniques explored (EG indicator, XCT and CAI) showed a decrease in post-impact
fatigue damage in CFRPs with the additional of hygrothermal degradation. However, only
the EG indicator was able to collect kinematic information from the specimens with
non-destructive testing, showing its strength over other damage evaluation techniques.
Furthermore, this is the first time combined impact fatigue and environmental loading has
been investigated in CFRP laminates. Thus, this work concludes that moisture uptake
plays a negative role in the mechanical response of CFRPs, particularly under repetitive
impact loading, due to its ability to accelerate damage propagation pathways.
5.3 Publications and Presentations
This list presents publications and presentations associated with the current thesis,
organized in reverse chronological order.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. “Combined impact fatigue and environmental

conditioning response of CFRPs.” Ready for submission, August 2023.
79
• Mendoza, I., Graham, A., Matejunas, A., Hodges, G., Siviour, C., Pankow, M. and
Lamberson, L. (2023). “Evaluation of low-cycle impact fatigue damage in CFRPs
using the Virtual Fields Method.” Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials, 1-13.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. “Damage Tolerancing in CFRCs Under Impact

Fatigue Using IR Deflectometry, the Virtual Fields Method,
Compression-After-Impact Testing and X-ray Tomography.” Society for Experimental
Mechanics Annual Conference. June 2023, Orlando, FL.
• Mendoza, I., and Lamberson, L. (2023, May). Integrating full-field optical methods,
inverse techniques and traditional mechanical testing for damage tolerancing in
CFRPs under impact fatigue. In 2023 Graduate Research And Discovery Symposium
(GRADS) posters and presentations. Colorado School of Mines. Arthur Lakes
Library.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. (2022). Substructure Damage Tolerancing in Carbon

Fiber Composites Under Impact Fatigue. In proceedings of the American Society for
Composites thirty-seventh technical conference.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. “Identifying Impact Fatigue Damage in Carbon Fiber

Composites Using Infrared Deflectometry and the Virtual Fields Method.” British
Society for Strain Measurement 16th International Conference on Advances in
Experimental Mechanics. September 2022, Oxford, UK.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. “Identifying Repetitive Impact Damage in Carbon

Fiber Composites using the Virtual Fields Method (VFM).” Society for Experimental
Mechanics Annual Conference. June 2022, Pittsburgh, PA.
• Mendoza, I. and Lamberson, L. “Damage identification in carbon fiber-reinforced

polymer (CFRP) composite plates under repetitive impact loading.” American
Society for Composites 36th Annual Technical Conference. September 2021, Virtual.
80
Other previous published work and presentations conducted during graduate study, but
not included in the current thesis, are listed below.
• Mendoza, I., Drury, D., Koumlis, S., Ivy, J., Brennecka, G., and Lamberson, L.
(2022). “Combined electromechanical dynamic fracture behavior of lead zirconate
titanate (PZT).” Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 105(5), 3116-3122.
• Mendoza, I., Drury, D., Matejunas, A., Ivy, J., Koumlis, S., Jewell, P., Brennecka, G.
and Lamberson, L. (2021). “Quasi-static and dynamic fracture behavior of lead
zirconate titanate: a study of poling and loading rate.” Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, 247, 107669.
• Mendoza, I., Will-Cole, A., and Lamberson, L. (2023). “The Mechanics of Dance:
Using Parametric Equations as Inspiration for Dance Choreography.” Creativity
Research Journal, 35(1), 33-43.
• Mendoza, I., Drury, D., Matejunas, A., Ivy, J., Koumlis, S., Jewell, P., Brennecka, G.
and Lamberson, L. “Combined Electromechanical Fracture Behavior of Poled and
De-poled Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT).” Society for Experimental Mechanics
Annual Conference. 2021, Virtual.
81
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APPENDIX A
PERMISSIONS
This appendix provides proof of permission to use previously published content in this
thesis. Per the guidelines outlined by Colorado School of Mines, any chapters based on
journal publications must obtain permissions from the original publisher. Additionally,
permission must be granted by any co-authors not on the PhD student’s committee, even if
the work has not yet been published in a journal.
All permissions for published figures were obtained using Copyright Clearance Center’s
RightsLink® service. The copyright permissions for Figs. 1.1, 1.2 and Chapter 3 are listed
in Table A.1.
CCC license Article title Journal Author

number
5595720347266 The role of reinforce- Journal of Mate- Bibo and Hogg [7]
ment architecture rials Science
on impact damage
mechanisms and
post-impact com-
pression behaviour
5595720460235 Impact damage de- Composites Part Devivier et al. [18]
tection in composite A: Applied Sci-
plates using deflec- ence and Manu-
tometry and the Vir- facturing
tual Fields Method
5602120226911 Evaluation of Low- Journal of Dy- Mendoza et al. [107]
Cycle Impact Fatigue namic Behavior
Damage in CFRPs of Materials
using the Virtual
Fields Method
Table A.1 Copyright permissions obtained from Copyright Clearance Center for Fig. 1.1,
Fig. 1.2 and Chapter 3.
92
Co-author permissions for the article titled ”Evaluation of Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue
Damage in CFRPs using the Virtual Fields Method” published in the Journal of Dynamic
Behavior of Materials are presented below. The original e-mail requesting permissions
from non-committee member co-authors as well as their responses are listed.
Original e-mail:
“Hello all,
This e-mail is to formally request permission to use our published work in my

thesis/dissertation. Explicit permission is required from co-authors who were not part of
my thesis committee. The details of the publication is listed here:
Mendoza, I., Graham, A., Matejunas, A., Hodges, G., Siviour, C., Pankow, M., &
Lamberson, L. (2023). Evaluation of Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue Damage in CFRPs using
the Virtual Fields Method. Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials, 1-13.
Please reply to this e-mail ASAP with your response (permission granted/not granted) so
that I may submit my final thesis for publishing on ProQuest.
Thank you very much!

Isabella Mendoza ”
93
Non-committee co-author responses:
• Aaron Graham, University of Oxford : “Yeah go for it dude,” received August 22

2023.
• Greyson Hodges, North Carolina State University: “Hi Isabella, Permission

Granted,” received August 22 2023.
• Andrew Matejunas, Colorado School of Mines: “Isabella, I give my permission to

include: Mendoza, I., Graham, A., Matejunas, A., Hodges, G., Siviour, C., Pankow,
M., & Lamberson, L. (2023). Evaluation of Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue Damage in
CFRPs using the Virtual Fields Method. Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials,
1-13 in your thesis,” received August 22 2023.
• Mark Pankow, North Carolina State University: “Permission granted,” received

August 22 2023.
94
APPENDIX B
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
B.1 Full-Field Strain Measurements from DIC
The strain maps from DIC for all specimens tested are seen in Fig. B.1 below. All
strain maps are in millistrain (m).
Figure B.1 DIC strain fields for all ambient specimens
95
Figure B.2 DIC strain field for short-soaked sample after Nf = 2000
Figure B.3 DIC strain field for short-soaked sample after Nf = 2000
Figure B.4 DIC strain field for long-soaked sample after Nf = 500
96
97
B.2 Equilibrium Gap Maps
Calculated EG maps for all specimens are presented below.
Figure B.8 EG map for short-soaked sample after Nf = 1400
98
Figure B.11 EG map for long-soaked sample after Nf = 500
99
100
101
B.3 Parameter Optimization for DIC Strain Window (SW) and EG Control
Window (CW)
DIC strain window and EG control window parameter optimization histograms are
presented in Fig. B.15.
Figure B.15 Histograms for DIC strain window and EG control window optimization for
ambient impact fatigued specimens, as described in Sec. 3.3.4.
102
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IMPACT FATIGUE DAMAGE IN CFRP

Dr. Leslie Lamberson

Dr. Carl Frick

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are widely used in military,

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

LIST OF SYMBOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

1.2.1 Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRP) . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2.2 Damage in Composite Laminates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2.3 Impact Damage Characterization Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2.4 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Evaluation . . . . . . . . 7

1.3 Project Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CHAPTER 2 INVESTIGATION OF FULL-FIELD OPTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR

2.1.1 Digital Image Correlation (DIC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.1.3 Grid Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.1.4 Visible Light and Infrared (IR) Deflectometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.2 Numerical and Experimental Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.2.1 Numerical Modeling of Full-field Strain Measurements . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.2.2 Application of IR Deflectometry for Experimental Strain

2.2.3 Efforts for Improving the IR Deflectometry Technique . . . . . . . . . . 21

CHAPTER 3 EVALUATION OF LOW-CYCLE IMPACT FATIGUE DAMAGE IN

3.1.1 Definitions and Terminology in Impact Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3.1.2 Low-Cycle Impact Fatigue in Fiber-Reinforced Polymers . . . . . . . . 27

3.2 Experimental Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.2.1 Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.2.2 Impact Fatigue Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.2.3 Static Bending Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

3.3 Application of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM) to Damage Identification . . 33

3.3.1 Derivation of the Virtual Fields Method (VFM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3.3.2 Formulation of the Equilibrium Gap (EG) Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3.3.3 Selection of Virtual Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3.3.4 Processing Parameter Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.4 Post-Mortem Damage Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

3.4.2 Validation with X-Ray Computed Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

CHAPTER 4 COMBINED IMPACT FATIGUE AND ENVIRONMENTAL

4.1.1 Impact Response of CFRP After Environmental Conditioning . . . . . 52

4.1.2 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements for Damage Detection . . . . . . . 54

4.2 Experimental Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.2.1 Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.2.2 Environmental Conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

4.2.3 Impact Fatigue Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4.2.4 Post-Impact Bending with Digital Image Correlation (DIC) . . . . . . . 58

4.2.5 Using VFM as a Damage Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

4.2.6 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact (CAI) ASTM Tests . . . . . . . 61

4.3.1 Hygrothermal Degradation of Specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

4.3.2 Full-Field Kinematics and VFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

4.3.3 Exploratory Compression-After-Impact ASTM Tests . . . . . . . . . . 68

5.1 Full-Field Kinematic Measurements of CFRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

5.2 Damage Tolerancing for Impact Fatigue and Environmental Conditioning . . . 78

5.3 Publications and Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

APPENDIX B SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

B.1 Full-Field Strain Measurements from DIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

B.2 Equilibrium Gap Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Figure 1.1 Low-velocity vs. high-velocity impact response of composite laminate

Figure 1.3 Ultrasound C-scan of internal delaminations in CFRP after single

Figure 1.5 XCT volumetric reconstruction of impact fatigued CFRP specimens. . . .6

Figure 2.1 Deformation tracking of randomized speckle pattern through digital

Figure 2.7 Experimental set-up for IR deflectometry bending tests. . . . . . . . . . . 19

Figure 3.1 A graphical representation of the experimental and analytical processes

Figure 3.6 Evolution of post-mortem longitudinal, transverse and in-plane shear

Figure 4.1 Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer plate as-received from RockWest

Figure 4.6 Experimental set-up for compression-after-impact (CAI) tests. . . . . . . 61

Figure 4.8 Subsurface delaminations resulting from long-term moisture absorption. . 64

Strain, in-plane shear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xy

Strain, longitudinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx

Strain, transverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yy

Virtual strains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ∗ij