MRI: Acquisition of a High-Speed Digital Image Correlation System for Research and Education

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a three-dimensional (3D) high-speed digital image correlation (DIC) system that provides 3D full-field nonintrusive measurements of deformation, vibration and strain. The instrument will enable new research, education and outreach activities, and collaboration among universities, industry and national labs.

Research on structural health monitoring of critical components and infrastructure can enable enhanced public safety in aircraft and buildings. A better understanding of nonlinear wave propagation can lead to new sensing capabilities for metamaterials -- paving the way for enhanced medical devices, more productive manufacturing systems and more sophisticated entertainment systems, and inspiring new technologies for data encryption and damage detection.

The instrumentation will be incorporated into various undergraduate and graduate courses and students in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and K-12 outreach activities will have an opportunity to use the instrument.

The 3D high-speed DIC system will enable researchers to tackle challenging problems in dynamic systems, such as nonlinear wave propagation and metamaterials, structural health monitoring, fluid-structure interaction (FSI), nonlinear dynamics, and thermal modal parameter identification. Fundamental knowledge gaps to be addressed include experimental characterization of amplitude-dependent dispersion shifts in nonlinear lattices and wave motion stability, development of damage-sensitive vibration-based methods for sandwich panels and of advanced FSI diagnostic technologies with simultaneous flow and structural measurement capabilities, and the understanding of quasi-periodic nonlinear dynamic behaviors of structures and the effects of geometric imperfections and temperatures on natural frequencies of structures.

The 3D high-speed DIC system will also provide an important tool for validation of numerical models of FSI and other problems.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.