Digital Image

Correlation
Strain and displacement are critical parameters within engineering and
construction projects. However, measuring these parameters outside of the
lab requires a difficult choice between conventional techniques, as accuracy,
simplicity and cost must all be balanced. Digital Imaging Correlation (DIC)
is a technique which may prove to be ideally suited for the study of crack
propagation and material deformation in real-world applications, as it has
the potential to become a cheap, simple yet accurate solution. This is the
motivation for perfecting the technique for researchers based at the UK’s
National Physical Laboratory (NPL). NPL is also expanding its use into
challenging areas, such as enabling DIC to be used over a period of time
without the need for a permanent set up, or in hard-to-reach areas via
small unmanned helicopters carrying camera and relocation equipment.
Dr Nick McCormick and Dr Jerry Lord
National Physical Laboratory
* E-mail: Nick McCormick, nick.mccormick@npl.co.uk; Jerry Lord, jerry.lord@npl.co.uk

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is an innovative non-contact
optical technique for measuring strain and displacement. DIC is
simple to use and cost effective compared to other techniques
such as speckle interferometery, and more accurate and subjective
than manual measurement methods, leading to a huge range of
potential applications.
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is refining the technique to
enable its use for in-situ measurements, outside the laboratory. It is
developing systems to apply DIC to the characterization of materials
and the monitoring of engineering components, as well as applications
in the civil engineering and nuclear industries. It is also expanding its
use into challenging areas, such as enabling DIC to be used over a
period of time without a need for a permanent set up, or to apply it to
hard to reach areas via small unmanned helicopters carrying camera
and relocation equipment.
What is the method?
DIC works by comparing digital photographs of a component or test
piece at different stages of deformation. By tracking blocks of pixels,
the system can measure surface displacement and build up full field
2D and 3D deformation vector fields and strain maps. For DIC to
work effectively, the pixel blocks need to be random and unique with
a range of contrast and intensity levels. It requires no special lighting
and in many cases the natural surface of the structure or component
has sufficient image texture for DIC to work without the need for any
special surface preparation.

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Software techniques have been developed to obtain sub-pixel
resolutions and allow efficient execution of the algorithms. These
allow high-resolution measurements to be made such that with
commercially available digital photography, surface deformation can be
measured down to one part per million of the field of view.
Images can be obtained from a wide variety of sources including
conventional CCD or consumer digital cameras, high-speed video,
macroscopes, and microscopes, including scanning electron and atomic
force microscopes. The DIC correlation process is not restricted to
optical images and can also be applied to other datasets such as
surface roughness maps and 2D surfaces of structures like tunnels
How is it being used?
DIC is simple to implement providing cost effective unambiguous
results leading to a huge range of potential applications. It has
been used at NPL to examine a diverse range of material specimens
including examining the evolution and uniformity of strain in materials
testing, crack tip and crack propagation studies, detecting damage
development in composites, structural deflections, high temperature
strain mapping and dynamic vibrational analysis.
NPL has worked with a range of partners, including Airbus, AWE,
Stresscraft and British Energy, to implement a DIC solution appropriate
for the measurement of residual stress from incremental hole drilling
in small structures. Other projects have included the application of
DIC for measuring thermal expansion and distortion of electronic
components, measuring the mechanical properties of nuclear graphite,
3D shape measurement on air bags, damage development in silk print
screens and strain development during the processing of chocolate.
NPL’s DIC expertise is currently being engaged as part of IMPACT
(Innovative Materials, Design and Monitoring of Power Plants to
Accommodate Carbon Capture), a major carbon abatement project that
aims to help carbon intensive industries reduce their CO2 emissions.
The aim is to develop in-situ monitoring of power plant components to
increase service life and help reduce emissions.
NPL is using DIC to characterize the new steels being developed
in the project to improve the high temperature capability of welded
thick section high alloy steel components, leading to novel advanced
in-service monitoring techniques to enable plant to operate at highest
temperatures under challenging design conditions.
NPL is working actively with UK industry to develop and promote
the use of DIC through participation in relevant government funded
and collaborative projects as well as through consultancy and
measurement services to industry.
The current focus of the NPL DIC work is to provide a practical
technique that can be used in a wide range of applications, such as
monitoring displacements in rail and road bridges and for measuring
crack opening in civil engineering components particularly in the
nuclear industry. Initial feasibility studies indicate the technique has
great potential in these areas.
METHODS & MATERIALS
What are the advantages?
DIC has several advantages over conventional NDT methods and some
of the other optical techniques such as laser shearography and speckle
interferometery, which are generally more expensive and more difficult
to use outside the laboratory as they require precise setup and low
vibrational environments, also the equipment is not always suitable
for use outdoors In contrast DIC uses conventional digital photography
and in combination with civil engineering surveying techniques can
be used to provide suitably accurate measurements of structures in
typical outdoor environments. Any changes in the structure can easily
be compared to the captured images and so anomalies that might be
caused by unexpected changes, like a bird landing on a bridge can be
easily identified.
For large civil engineering structures, such as bridges and buildings
and power generation infrastructure manual inspection techniques
are often still used. This leads to inspections that can be influenced
by subjectivity particularly when operatives are tired. By capturing
accurately positioned and aligned images, comparisons can be made
between surveys and differences readily identified, whether these
are due to surface change, deformation or crack opening. The key to
long term cost-effective management of these structures is to use
low-cost measurement techniques that can be cheaply deployed, and
are suitably accurate. DIC fulfils these criteria and future work at NPL
will be to explore even more cost effective ways of capturing suitable
image data using different types of measurement platforms such as
small flying vehicles that can rapidly capture data from difficult to
access areas of interest without the additional cost of scaffolding or
operator protection. In this example the main challenge is to provide
suitable ways of relocating the camera for subsequent measurements.
One example showing the use of DIC is in crack opening
measurement. If a structure, such as a reinforced concrete bar
undergoing a load test cracks, Fig. 1, then it can be quite easy to see
Fig. 1 Concrete step after being subjected to load test. Shows one large crack
but no other visible cracks.
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METHODS & MATERIALS
Fig. 2 Dye penetrant to show cracks that are not visible to the naked eye.
the location of the main crack. However other smaller cracks may
also be present which are not readily seen. Using a dye penetrant, Fig. 2,
allows more cracks to be identified, albeit in a labor intensive, messy
fashion. By using DIC, with one image taken before cracking occurred
and one taken afterwards then the full extent of crack opening can be
seen, Fig. 3. This has the benefits of identifying cracks that have opened
in a non-contact, low-cost fashion. It can provide accurate crack opening
measurements, even if the edges of the crack are ill defined and provide
useful information on where to fit crack opening sensors.
There are still some significant challenges with making accurate
measurements with DIC, particularly with measurements outside the
lab, because of the effects of the environment and due to the potential
changes in surface conditions due to weathering and oxidation,
temperature effects, component geometry issues, and the difficulty
Fig. 3 Output from the DIC as a map of local deformation showing cracks not visible to the human eye.
54 DECEMBER 2010 | VOLUME 13 | NUMBER 12
of access leading to non-optimal views of the surface. To solve these
problems NPL is running a UK government project to develop DIC
applications with particular focus on precise re-positioning of the
camera equipment, and assessing the effect on the accuracy and
reliability of the measurement. For the very large images generated
from high-resolution cameras, NPL has written its own software, which
runs on the NPL Grid of desk top machines, enabling calculations to be
sped up by several orders of magnitude.
Recent work developing new software and partnering with industry
confirms the promise of DIC and NPL continues working to refine
the technique and expand it to new areas, and develop new levels
of accuracy, with the aim that is becomes a widely used low-cost
accurate measurement technique, bringing important advantages to
industry and the measurement community alike.