Thermoelastic stress analysis of impacted composite laminates for damage tracking and fatigue life assessment

In this study, compression after impact fatigue test results were obtained experimentally for the composite material system. A novel approach was developed using a compact low-cost thermoelastic stress analysis system developed by DST to quantify the development of damage and propose a new methodology for in-situ damage tracking in composite structures by measuring the change in damage area on the front impact surface. The post-impact compression fatigue damage morphology was characterised using XmCT. Damage captured by XmCT correlated well with the damage observed through TSA, which offers confidence in the use of TSA to monitor the progression of low velocity impact damage.