Tensile and fracture characterization using a simplified digital image correlation test set-up

Digital image correlation (DIC) is now a popular and extensively used full-field metrology technique. In general, DIC is performed by using a turnkey solution offered by various manufacturers of DIC. In this paper, a simple and economical set-up for DIC is proposed which uses easily accessible digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera rather than industrial couple-charged device (CCD) cameras. The paper gives a description of aspects of carrying a DIC experiment which includes experimental set-up, specimen preparation, image acquisition and analysis. The details provided here will be helpful to carry DIC experiments without specialized DIC testing rig. To validate the responses obtained from proposed DIC set-up, tension and fatigue tests on specimens made of IS 2062 Gr. E300 steel are determined. Tensile parameters for a flat specimen and stress intensity factor for an eccentrically-loaded single edge notch tension specimen are evaluated from results of DIC experiment. Results obtained from proposed DIC experiments are compared with those obtained from conventional methods and are found to be in close agreement. It is also noted that the high resolution of DSLR allows the use of proposed approach for fracture characterization which could not be carried out with a typical turnkey DIC solution employing a camera of 2MP resolution.