Digital Image Correlation System Design, Verification and Analysis

Two dimensional digital image correlation provides an accurate and effective way to capture strain data on test sections with unusual or oblique geometries. The system requires a camera to record video footage, alignment fixtures and software to convert the footage into strain values. The system works by capturing the video footage of a specific portion of the specimen and comparing the movement of selected pixels. This is all done in the software GOM Correlate and Tracker. This test document outlines the setup, procedure, and validation steps to fulfill this goal. The setup involves a camera, tripod, blue lighting, and laser distance measurers. Then we discuss the steps to take once your video has been captured to postprocess. The process of setup, running a test, and analyzing the video was a system developed from scratch and required continuous improvement. Finally, once our system was verified as a class B extensometer, we were able to obtain real displacement data on a test specimen and correlated it with material data to present a real-world application. The result of this project is a fully functioning and adaptable digital image correlation system that LTA Galactic can utilize for testing purposes. The final presentation will be a full explanation on the system, how it works, the tests we’ve run with it to verify accuracy and the error analysis