Infrared thermography was used to study damage developing in woven fabrics. Two different experiments were performed, a +/- 45A degrees tensile test and a rail shear test. These two different types of tests show different damage scenarios, even if the shear stress/strain curves are similar. The +/- 45A degrees tension test shows matrix hardening and matrix cracking whereas the rail shear test shows only matrix hardening. The infrared thermography was used to perform an energy balance, which enabled the visualization of the portion of dissipated energy caused by matrix cracking. The results showed that when the resin is subjected to pure shear, a larger amount of energy is stored by the material, whereas when the resin is subjected to hydrostatic pressure, the main part of mechanical energy is dissipated as heat.