In the last few decades, there has been a growing interest in studying non-contact techniques in the field of structural monitoring. Within photogrammetry, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has received particular attention thanks to the advances in the field of lowcost, high resolution digital cameras, computer power and memory storage. DIC is a photogrammetric technique able to measure full-field displacement and strain by comparing digital images of a sample surface captured at different stages of deformation.
A free and open source (FOS) two-dimensional (2D) DIC software, named py2DIC, was developed at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division of the University of Rome La Sapienza. The software is completely written in python and it is based on the template matching method to compute the displacement and strain fields of an object subjected to mechanical loading.
The research project is focused on a detailed study about the potentialities of the implemented software and the aim is to develop and apply the methodology in the widest practical cases, releasing as much as possible the acquisition constrains related to the laboratory conditions.
Furthermore, the research project involves the implementation of a three-dimensional (3D) DIC software which provides the measurement of full 3D displacement fields of a solid surface. Finally, the implemented 2D and 3D DIC software will be used to process images captured during deformation processes on different materials and in different practical cases such as tunnel monitoring.
This research will be focused on the improvement of a new free and open source software for 2D DIC in order to compute displacement and strain fields starting from images acquired with low-cost non-professional digital camera. Besides, as the DIC testing setup used to acquire the images is generally elementary and not applicable out of the laboratory conditions, a new omographic approach will be implemented in order to make the methodology easy to use in the widest practical cases and for new specific applications.
Besides, a 3D DIC method will be implemented in order to compute 3D displacements and strains of objects with a general 3D shape. The aim is to develop a new FOS 3D DIC software available to the DIC community in order to reduce the cost involved in procuring commercial DIC software and allow customizations of the source code to better fit specific requirements.