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Optimization of the digital image correlation method for deformation measurement of geomaterials

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Abstract

For the application of the digital image correlation (DIC) method in the deformation measurement of geomaterials, the conventional approaches can hardly realize optimized results in terms of precision and speed, especially for geotechnical tests with variable scales and going through discontinuities. Considering the deformation characteristics of geomaterials, two algorithmic approaches were proposed to deal with the conundrums in the application of DIC for experimental measurement. Incorporated with DIC and the acoustic emission system, uniaxial compression tests were performed on rock-like materials to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Based on preliminary trials through the adjustment of conventional DIC parameters, it is hard to reach an accurate result for materials with obserable cracks. The proposed algorithm shows an optimized revision for subsets in regions subject to discontinuity influence whose efficiency is independent of the crack size. Meanwhile, the fast-speed algorithm designed for DIC enables the searching scope auto-adjusted, and the computation time can be reduced to approximately one-tenth of the conventional one. The proposed algorithm was implemented in the self-developed DIC software, implemented program, which is specially designed for geotechnical tests.

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Acknowledgements

The work was funded by the Science and Technology Plan Project of Xuzhou, China, with Grant Number KC21310, the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) with Grant Number 2014CB046905, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China with Grant Number 42077235.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics & Deep Underground Engineering, Xuzhou, China

    YuanHai Li & XiaoJie Tang

  2. School of Mechanics & Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China

    YuanHai Li & XiaoJie Tang

  3. School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    HongHu Zhu

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  1. YuanHai Li
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Correspondence to XiaoJie Tang.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

1.1 Comparison of DIC results computed from the implemented program and open-source programs in the MATLAB platform

In this section, we present a case comparing the displacement results computed from the implemented program and the open-source program in the MATLAB platform, Ncorr [1, 5]. DIC parameters input into two programs stays the same, with subset radius and subset interval set as 15 pixels and 5 pixels, respectively. Color maps corresponding to displacement data in horizontal and vertical directions are depicted in Fig. 

Fig. 16
figure 16

Comparison of displacement results calculated through the implemented program in conventional mode and the Ncorr implemented in MATLAB. The unit of coordinates and color map is pixels

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16 (deformed material surface can be seen in Fig. 

Fig. 17
figure 17

Two cases illustrating the function of the OPFPM to optimize the DIC computation for revising the error induced by discontinuities. a1, a2, and a3 depict the displaced grids from conventional DIC computation, displacement vector arrows in the OPFPM mode, and color mapping corresponding to volumetric strain invariants, respectively, during a deformed process. b1, b2, and b3 describe these results from another cracked region

Full size image

17b). Firstly, the displacement data are almost the same in the two programs in terms of the deformation pattern and magnitudes. Moreover, it can be observed that the displacement data near the crack region in both programs are subject to the discontinuity influence shown as several irregularly displaced points distributed near the crack surface. The reason corresponding to such computational error is given in the former sections. Here, we conclude that the implemented program in conventional modes can reach reliable results which are the same as the ones performed on other open-source DIC programs, and secondly, the computational error induced by cracks is widely encountered in DIC analysis.

Appendix 2

2.1 Supplemented cases illustrating the function of the OPFPM to revise the computation error in regions subject to cracking influence

In this appendix, two supplemented cases for crack revision are presented to show the effectiveness and reliability of the OPFPM. DIC parameters in these two tests stay the same as that in the former sections. As shown in Fig. 17, for these two randomly selected material surfaces, the computation of DIC in conventional mode meets discontinuity influence near the crack surface with the number of error points associated with the crack width. Since additional image information from the crack region, the DIC tracing is affected a lot in terms of the computation of the correlation coefficient which induces incorrect identification of target subsets. While the OPFPM is activated in the implemented program, the DIC result near the cracking region gets well revised, and the remaining area stays the same as the conventional cases, as shown from the displacement vectors in Fig. 17a2 and b2. Here, the Mode-I crack is denoted by volumetric strain invariants for its tensile opening characteristics. Figure 17a3 and b3 describe the color mapping corresponding to volumetric strain invariants with strain data in the OPFPM mode. The mapping results show that the localized region identified in DIC agrees well with the real location of cracks. During a deformed process with cracks generated on the material surface, the activation of the OPFPM has been proved to significantly optimize the DIC computation for revising the error induced by discontinuities.

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Li, Y., Tang, X. & Zhu, H. Optimization of the digital image correlation method for deformation measurement of geomaterials. Acta Geotech. 17, 5721–5737 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01646-x

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