Digital image correlation (DIC) based damage detection for CFRP laminates by using machine learning based image semantic segmentation

• Full-field health monitoring of CFRP plates by digital image correlation (DIC). • Automatically track the strain distribution using CNN based semantic segmentation. • The highest accuracy achieved by adopting ResNet-50 as CNN backbone network . • The cost-effective model training using FEA data and reducing experimental tests. Vision-based damage detection in carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites can be interfered by such factors as surface texture, stains and lighting. A digital image correlation (DIC) based surface strain monitoring technique, on the other hand, enables to track the change of strain distribution. It is promising to develop a new approach for online structural health monitoring (SHM), in which the DIC strain contours can be scrutinized automatically and the results are no longer substantially subjected to human interference. In this study, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based image semantic segmentation technique is proposed for pixel-level classification of DIC strain field images. A DeepLabv3+ encoder-decoder architecture combined with different feature extraction networks is investigated. The training dataset and validation of the model are obtained through finite element (FE) simulation. The images of quasi-static axial tensile strain field obtained from 2D-DIC are used to test the accuracy and efficiency of the trained CNN model. It is found that use of a pre-trained ResNet-50 CNN model as the backbone network of DeepLabv3+ architecture through a transfer learning algorithm can make the semantic segmentation results reach a mean intersection over union of 0.9236. The prediction accuracy of the semantic segmentation model trained from the FE data is comparable with that of the model trained from the experimental data, which demonstrates that the proposed machine learning approach for DIC measurement is cost-effective. .