Abstract: In the present study carbon epoxy cruciform type specimens with a cross ply lay up, were biaxially and uniaxially loaded in their plane using four independent servo-hydraulic actuators. Four different biaxial loading ratios were investigated while the applied load was quasistatic. A comparison between experimental observations for the strain evolution of the biaxially loaded central section of the specimen coming from digital image correlation measurements (DIC) and a three dimensional finite element damage model (FEDM) will be shown. Furthermore the failure loads coming from the load shells of the machine were straightforward compared with the output of the FEDM
