Micro-computed tomography analysis of damage in notched composite laminates under multi-axial fatigue

The broad application of polymer composites in engineering demands the deep understanding of the main damage mechanisms under realistic loading conditions and the development of proper physics-based models. Towards this goal, this study presents a comprehensive characterization of the main damage mechanisms in a selection of notched composite structures under multiaxial fatigue loading. Thanks to a synergistic combination of X-ray micro-computed tomography (mu-CT) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC), the main failure modes are identified while the crack volume associated to each mechanism is characterized. This study provides unprecedented quantitative data for the development and validation of computational models to capture the fatigue behavior of polymer composite structures.