Applications of camera phone-based digital image correlation system in the teaching of experimental mechanics

To help students better understand mechanics and to stimulate students’ interest in experimental mechanics, this paper proposes experimental methods based on the camera phone imaging and the digital image correlation for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) deformations measurement. Taking the typical tensile test as an example, we first determine the load-strain curve of an aluminum specimen using a camera phone and the two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D-DIC). To achieve the high-precision strain measurement, the idea of “compensation” is introduced to eliminate the errors associated with the camera phone image. Subsequently, the three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) system based on a single camera phone is developed to determine the shape profiles of a cylinder and irregular surfaces, as well as the topography change and the 3D full-field deformation of the inflatable sphere during the deflation process. The experimental results intuitively show the change of the surface of the inflatable sphere during the entire deflation process. The cost-effective and ultra-portable camera phone-based DIC systems not only greatly decrease the hardware investment in the system construction, but also increase the convenience and the efficiency of 3D deformation measurements, with a great potential in the teaching of experimental mechanics in resource-limited universities and research institutes.