This work focuses on the development of an experimental technique which can help to define the key parameters for post-impact behaviour of laminated composite panels. To address this issue, finite element models were built to represent delaminations based on the observations of CT-scans of impacted samples. The results of these models have been correlated to experimental data obtained using a slope full-field measurement technique: deflectometry. This work also develops a new damage indicator based on the application of the virtual fields method to compute a local equilibrium gap. The procedure is first presened and then applied to beam and plate samples. The experimental results illustrate the remarkable sensitivity of this measurement method as it captures the effect of very small amount of damage and shows that the simple numerical models need to be refined to present a better correlation to experimental results. The damage indicator successfully detects contours of damaged areas when sufficient spatial information is available. It is believed that pursuing the present work could lead to an invaluable tool to help design engineers.
