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A Speckling Technique for DIC on Ultra-Soft, Highly Hydrated Materials

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Abstract

Background

Digital image correlation is a useful tool in many engineering disciplines to measure and visualize deformation fields. Noteworthily, its successful application is critically dependent on a high-quality surface speckle pattern. While there are numerous standard techniques to apply such patterns, some materials require special techniques because of their unique surface properties.

Objective

The goal of our technical brief is to introduce a speckling technique for ultra-soft and highly hydrated materials for which standard speckling techniques may not be suitable. We chose blood clot as our primary sample material.

Methods

We identified polymer granules as an easy, fast, and inexpensive speckling material. To test its efficacy and applicability, we patterned blood clot with a 50:50 mix of black and white granules. Next, we conducted pure shear and mode-I fracture experiments to determine whether these granules produce a high-quality DIC pattern and whether their application alters the material’s behavior.

Results

We found that applying a 50:50 mix of black and white granules produced high-quality speckle patterns as evaluated via the mean image gradient and a digital image correlation simulator. Additionally, we found that applying granules to the samples’ surfaces does not alter their material properties as measured via the material’s stiffness, strength, work-to-fracture, and fracture toughness. We confirmed that our technique also works for other ultra-soft and highly hydrated materials by applying it to gelatin.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we provide an easy, fast, and inexpensive speckling technique for ultra-soft, highly hydrated materials, such as blood clot and gelatin, which does not alter the materials’ mechanical properties.

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Data Availability

Our DIC images and mechanical raw data have been uploaded to https://dataverse.tdl.org/dataverse/bloodclotDIC and are openly available to the interested reader.

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Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the partial support of our work through Office of Naval Research grant N00014-22-1-2073 as well as National Science Foundation grants 2046148 and 2105175. The opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    G. P. Sugerman & M. K. Rausch

  2. Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    J. Yang & M. K. Rausch

  3. Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    M. K. Rausch

Authors
  1. G. P. Sugerman
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  2. J. Yang
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  3. M. K. Rausch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. K. Rausch.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Rausch has a speaking agreement with Edwards Lifesciences. The other authors have no conflicts to declare.

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Sugerman, G.P., Yang, J. & Rausch, M.K. A Speckling Technique for DIC on Ultra-Soft, Highly Hydrated Materials. Exp Mech 63, 585–590 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-023-00938-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-023-00938-x

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