A comparison study on experimental characterization of unidirectional fiber reinforced composites using strain-gauges and virtual extensometers

The aim of this study is to characterize E-glass/epoxy unidirectional fiber reinforced composites using the digital image correlation method with virtual extensometer, which is a less laborious method than strain gauges, compare the results and investigate whether virtual extensometers can be used instead of strain gauges. Measurements in tensile and Iosipescu shear tests were made with both strain gauge and virtual extensometer. Unlike full-field strain measurements in literature, the strains were measured using virtual extensometers. Tensile test and in-plane shear test results gave very consistent results. The differences between the strain gauge and the virtual extensometer for the tensile and in-plane shear tests were less than 3% in the linear region. However, the out-of-plane shear test showed a larger difference of 8.6%. This study showed that the 2D digital image correlation method with virtual extensometers is highly sufficient to find the elasticity moduli and shear moduli in tensile and shear tests in the linear region. In addition, after the damage has started, more measurement data can be obtained with virtual extensometers than with strain gauges.