A direct crack sizing approach from DIC strain analyses under elasto-plastic and dynamic conditions

Role of build orientation on quasi-static and dynamic fracture responses of additively manufactured AlF357 and AlSi10Mg alloys

Digital image correlation (DIC) measurements are affected by several sources of uncertainty. Motion blur is one of the most relevant problems in dynamic DIC applications. This work deals with the problem of compensating motion blur effects on DIC. Firstly, a robust motion blur estimation technique based on cepstral analysis is presented and validated. Secondly, the problem of image restoration has been tackled. Two image deconvolution techniques are presented: one based on cepstrum deconvolution and the other based on Wiener filter. The latter has shown better robustness in presence of noise. Each presented technique has been tested with synthetic DIC experiments. Results demonstrate that both the compensation algorithms are able to improve the accuracy of DIC measurement in presence of motion blur.

Reliable and quantitative non-destructive evaluation for small fatigue cracks, in particular those in hard-to-inspect locations, is a challenging problem. Guided waves are advantageous for structural health monitoring due to their slow geometrical decay of amplitude with propagating distance, which is ideal for rapid wide-area inspection. This paper presents a 3D laser vibrometry experimental and finite element analysis of the interaction between an edge-guided wave and a small through-thickness hidden edge crack on a racecourse shaped hole that occurs, in practice, as a fuel vent hole. A piezoelectric transducer is bonded on the straight edge of the hole to generate the incident wave. The excitation signal consists of a 5.5 cycle Hann-windowed tone burst of centre frequency 220 kHz, which is below the cut-off frequency for the first order Lamb wave modes (SH1). Two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation (2D FFT) is applied to the incident and scattered wave field along radial lines emanating from the crack mouth, so as to identify the wave modes and determine their angular variation and amplitude. It is shown experimentally and computationally that mid-plane symmetric edge waves can travel around the hole’s edge to detect a hidden crack. Furthermore, the scattered wave field due to a small crack length, a, (compared to the wavelength λ of the incident wave) is shown to be equivalent to a point source consisting of a particular combination of body-force doublets. It is found that the amplitude of the scattered field increases quadratically as a function of a/λ, whereas the scattered wave pattern is independent of crack length for small cracks a << λ. This study of the forward scattering problem from a known crack size provides a useful guide for the inverse problem of hidden crack detection and sizing.

The use of 2D ultrasound elastography for measuring tendon motion and strain

Welding is one of the most widely used joining techniques for manufacturing complex engineering components. However, due to transient temperature cycles in the adjacent materials being joined, the local microstructure is altered and plastic strain in the surrounding materials is introduced resulting in a variation of mechanical properties across the weldment. When an extracted cross-weld test specimen is subjected to an external uniaxial load, there is interaction between the various constituents of the weld (such as the weld fused zone, heat affected zone and parent metal) resulting in development of constraint in the weaker material due to the adjacent stronger material. This affects the distribution of stress along and within the test specimen. The level of constraint developed is dependent on the strength mismatch between adjacent materials which may be graded across the heat affected zone and the specimen cross-sectional geometry. With development of digital image correlation (DIC) and its application to measuring deformation of solids, it has become feasible to measure local stress-strain properties of cross-weld samples and also specimens of variable geometry at both room and high temperature. Local deformation measured by DIC is correlated with nominal stress based on an iso-stress assumption, where it is assumed that the various regions of the weld are arranged in series and that the stress is uniform over the cross-section area at any given location in the specimen. Thus, local mechanical properties are inferred by mapping the measured local strain against the global stress. In this context the effect of constraint is important because it introduces a local stress distribution that will differ from the global net section stress and can therefore introduce errors in determination of local stress-strain properties. The influence of these factors raises questions concerning the interpretation of apparent local mechanical properties of cross-welds measured using DIC. Specifically, there is uncertainty as to whether the measured variation in local strain versus average cross-sectional stress (average global stress) represents the local mechanical properties of the material with negligible error. The severity of potential constraint errors will be influenced by the specimen geometry (particularly the tensile specimen thickness to width ratio for 2D DIC strain measurements) and the gradient of material property inhomogeneity along the specimen gauge length. In the current study, measurement of deformation in varying stress fields using DIC was carried out. Two distinct methods of introducing varying stress fields were employed: in the first case, the stress field was varied by designing an hour-glass shaped specimen with the specimen width varying as a function of the gauge length. In the second case, stress fields were varied due to a change in the specimen thickness in mismatched dissimilar metal joints. To reduce the complexity in the developed stress fields in the region near the interface, two materials were joined using solid state diffusion bonding giving a step change in the material properties across a planar interface. Test specimens spanning the interface were studied by finite element modelling and experimental tests with DIC deformation monitoring. Using DIC and a single hour-glass shaped specimen, multiple creep curves at different stress levels along the specimen gauge length have been successfully extracted for a test temperature of 525oC. The creep data obtained at 525oC from the hour-glass specimen test have been fitted to RCC-MR, Garofalo and Graham-Walles creep deformation models. A better correlation is achieved between the experimental data and the RCC-MR model predicted values when the local deformations from the single specimen are plotted as a function of time and true stress at the end of the specimen’s initial loading. From both elastic-plastic FE models and experimental local stress-strain curves extracted from DIC measurements, it can be concluded that a thin (1mm thick or less) 6mm wide test specimen should be used to extract the local mechanical properties from tensile specimens that have varying material properties along the gauge length, such as found in cross-weld test specimens. This is because the thinner specimen reduces the size of the strain concentration region adjacent to the interface where errors in measured local mechanical properties can occur. As a ‘rule of thumb’, the intrinsic stress-strain properties of the material should not be inferred from regions within 1mm of the interface for these 1mm thick samples because of concentration errors. The results obtained demonstrate the capability of DIC as a measurement technique for characterising the local deformation of specimens with varying stress fields. The findings also highlight some aspects of the technique which need to be considered when interpreting data from DIC measurements of local deformation from specimens with varying stress fields.

A detailed understanding of the changes in load transfer due to implantation is necessary to identify potential failure mechanisms of orthopedic implants. Computational finite element (FE) models provide full field data on intact and implanted bone structures, but their validity must be assessed for clinical relevance. The aim of this study was to test the validity of FE predicted strain distributions for the intact and implanted pelvis using the digital image correlation (DIC) strain measurement technique. FE models of an in vitro hemipelvis test setup were produced, both intact and implanted with an acetabular cup. Strain predictions were compared to DIC and strain rosette measurements. Regression analysis indicated a strong linear relationship between the measured and predicted strains, with a high correlation coefficient (R = 0.956 intact, 0.938 implanted) and a low standard error of the estimate (SE = 69.53 με, 75.09 με). Moreover, close agreement between the strain rosette and DIC measurements improved confidence in the validity of the DIC technique. The FE model therefore was supported as a valid predictor of the measured strain distribution in the intact and implanted composite pelvis models, confirming its suitability for further computational investigations.

Ultrasonic phased array transducers can be used to extend traditional time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) crack sizing, resulting in more quantitative information about the crack being obtained. Traditional TOFD yields a single length parameter, while the equivalent flaw time-of-flight diffraction crack sizing method (EFTOFD) described here uses data from multiple look-angles to fit an equivalent degenerate ellipsoid to the crack. The size and orientation of the equivalent flaw can be used to estimate the actual crack size.

: Crack tip deformations and fracture parameters in functionally graded glass-filled epoxy beams are experimentally evaluated under static and dynamic loading conditions. Beams with unidirectional, monotonic elastic gradients and cracks along the gradient are examined. SEN samples with increasing or decreasing Young's modulus ahead of the crack tip are studied in symmetric four-point bending and one-point impact loading configurations. Optical method of Coherent Gradient Sensing (CGS) is used to measure crack tip deformations prior to crack initiation. For impact loading experiments, CGS is used in conjunction with high-speed photography for recording instantaneous deformation fields. Stress intensity factors (SIF) or SIF-histories in functionally graded materials (FGM) based on locally homogeneous material descriptions in the immediate crack tip vicinity are evaluated and compared with companion finite element simulations. The influence of elastic gradients in FGM samples with cracks on the compliant and stiff sides of the beam are quantified relative to their homogeneous counterparts and with each other. Under static loading conditions, the crack tip located on the compliant side of the beam is elastically shielded when compared to the situation when the crack is on the stiffer side of the same FGM beam. Under dynamic conditions, however, elastic gradients affect crack initiation differently. Crack initiation in an FGM with a crack on the stiff side of the beam and impact occurring on the compliant edge is delayed when compared to the opposite configuration. Independent finite element simulations of FGMs with idealized elastic gradients with identical crack tip elastic properties suggest that lower crack tip loading rate in the former is responsible for the differences.

Critical comparative assessment of digital image correlation vs contact extensometry: ensuring the fidelity and depth of mechanical properties determination

As a representative method of optical non-interference measurement, digital image correlation (DIC) technology is a non-contact optical mechanics method that can measure the displacement and deformation of the whole field. However, when the measurement range of the field is too large, the existing DIC method cannot measure the full-field strain accurately, which limits the application of the DIC measurement in the case of a large size and wide-field view. To address this issue, a DIC measurement method for large-scale structures based on adaptive warping image stitching is proposed in this paper. First, multiple adjacent high-resolution images are collected at different locations of large-scale structures. Secondly, the collected images are stitched by applying the adaptive warping image stitching algorithm to obtain a panoramic image. Finally, the DIC algorithm is applied to solve the whole deformation field. In the experiments, we first verify the feasibility of the proposed method for image matching and fusion through the numerical simulation of a rigid body translation experiment. Then the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method in practical application are verified by rigid body translation and a three-point bending experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the measurement range of DIC is improved significantly with the adaptive warping image stitching algorithm.

Inverse method for detection and sizing of cracks in thin sections using a hybrid genetic algorithm based signal parametrisation

Study on the dynamic fracturing characteristics of aggregate-mortar interface under various loading rates using DIC

In recent years, high-speed cameras permit to record high-resolution images at several thousand frames-per-second. In addition to this, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measures full-field displacements and strains in 3D from stereo camera images and perform Operational Deflection Shape and Modal Analysis on the data. Several papers have demonstrated the validity of the approach on laboratory cases, comparing and validating the results with those obtained using more standard measurement techniques (accelerometers, strain gauges, lasers). Very limited cases have been however investigated on the possibility to combine high-speed DIC and standard accelerometer-based measurement to fully exploit the advantages of both techniques. In this paper, the possibility to combine global acceleration measurements on an F16 during a classical Ground Vibration Test with local full-field camera measurement is investigated. The advantages of the combined approach are clear, as the standard measurement will provide the global mode shapes of the aircraft, which can be used for certification and modal validation, while the local high-speed camera measurement system can provide displacement and strain field data with an unmatchable spatial resolution. In particular, the paper will focus on the possibility of using the local displacement measurements to better characterize the non-linear behavior of the connection between the wing and the payload.

Analysis of mechanical behaviour and fracture interaction of multi-hole rock mass with DIC measurement

Zinc alloys are used in a wide range of application such as electronics, automotive and building construction. Their various shapes are generally obtained by metal forming operation such as stamping. Therefore, it is important to characterize the material with adequate characterization tests. Sheet Bulging Test (SBT) is well recognized in the metal forming community. Different theoretical models of the literature for the evaluation of thickness and radius of the deformed sheet in SBT have been studied in order to get the hardening curve of different materials. These theoretical models present the advantage that the experimental procedure is very simple. But Koç et al. showed their limitation, since the combination of thickness and radius evaluations depend on the material. As Zinc alloys are strongly anisotropic with a special crystalline structure, a procedure is adopted for characterizing the hardening curve of a Zinc alloy. The anisotropy is first studied with tensile test, and SBT with elliptical dies is also investigated. Parallel to this, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measures are carried out. The results obtained from theoretical models and DIC measures are compared. Measures done on post-mortem specimens complete the comparisons. Finally, DIC measures give better results and the resulting hardening curve of the studied zinc alloy is provided.