Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251

www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest
Test Method
Full-field deformation measurement of fiber composite pressure
vessel using digital speckle correlation method
X.F. Yaoa,*, L.B. Menga, J.C. Jina, H.Y. Yehb
a
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China
b
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-8305, USA
Received 18 May 2004; accepted 15 July 2004

Abstract

Applications of the digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) for the full-field deformation measurement of carbon
fiber/epoxy composite pressure vessel were investigated and the basic principles of displacement measurement by the DSCM
are briefly given. The full-field displacement and strain distribution of a composite pressure vessel were evaluated under
internal pressure. The results of the average strain value show a good agreement with the results from conventional electronic
strain gauge technology. The results reveal that the DSCM is suitable for deformation measurement of composite pressure
vessels in real engineering practice.
q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Digital speckle correlation method; Deformation measurement; Composite pressure vessel; Strain field

1. Introduction deformation information such as matrix failure, interface

Composite materials have been widely used in aero-
nautical and civil engineering etc. due to their excellent
mechanical properties such as high strength to weight ratio,
high stiffness to weight ratio, impact resistance etc.
Composite pressure vessels are a typical example of real
engineering application of composites. Due to its high
pressure working environment, deformation characteristics
of this type of vessel need to be monitored by a non-
destructive evaluation (NDE) method.
Many NDE methods are recognized as playing an
important role in the design of composite vessels.
Traditional strain gage technology is only suitable for
point measurement, and also it is difficult to get meso/micro
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C86-10-6277-1546; fax: C86-10-
6278-1824.
E-mail address: yxf@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (X.F. Yao).
0142-9418/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.polymertesting.2004.05.009
debonding. Some advanced non-destructive testing technol-
ogies have been developed to measure the deformation
information in composite pressure vessels. Knapp et al. [1]
gave a new concept for monitoring the structural integrity of
filament-wound pressure vessels using an optical sensor.
Degrieck et al. [2] embedded optical fiber Bragg sensor into
a carbon/epoxy, filament-wound pressure vessel (with
5.75 in. diameter) for monitoring the strain and temperature
signals. Walker et al. [3] made neural network/acoustic
emission burst pressure predictions for impact damaged
composite pressure vessels. Nokes et al. [4] introduced four
NDE methods to study the problem of detecting and locating
impact sites on composite over-wrapped pressure vessels.
The four NDE methods employed were ultrasound,
thermography, electronic shearography and acoustic emis-
sion monitoring. Downs et al. [5] studied six aerospace-type
filament-wound graphite/epoxy pressure vessels and mon-
itored the dynamic deformation signals using acoustic
emission during a proof test sequence after an impact.
246
Recently, the digital speckle correlation method
(DSCM) has shown its special merits in deformation
measurement of materials and structures, such as being
non-contact, simple optical setup, no special preparation of
specimens and no special requirement for the test environ-
ment, no sensitivity to the illumination and vibration. It can
get the full displacement field by comparing two speckle
images before and after deformation of the specimen. It has
been widely applied in mechanical analysis of materials and
structures, such as strain concentration in composites and
crack initiation of various materials. Perie et al. [6]
performed a multiaxial test on a carbon/carbon composite
using digital image correlation and tracked the damage
pattern. Jin et al. [7] studied the basic principle of digital
speckle correlation technology and its measurement appli-
cation in many engineering structures. Based on the author’s
knowledge, there is little literature about deformation
measurement of composite pressure vessels using the
DSCM.
In this paper, the DSCM is used to study the deformation
characterization of a composite pressure vessel. A series of
digital speckle images with deformation information were
recorded at different pressure levels. The relations between
deformation and internal pressure are obtained. Some non-
homogeneous deformation characteristics are analyzed
based on the evolution of the displacement and strain field
of the composite vessel.
2. Digital speckle correlation method
The DSCM, which is a new measuring tool using
image recognition technology, compares two images of
the specimen in the undeformed and deformed state. The
key to this kind of experimental method is to search for
the maximum correlation between small zones in the
deformed and reference images, from which the displace-
ment at different positions in the zone of interest can be
obtained. The simplest image-matching procedure is
cross-correlation, which can determine the in-plane
displacement field (u,v) by matching different zones of
two images. A new correlation equation will help the peak
search and improve the accuracy as well. It is shown in
Eq. (1) [8,9]
X
m X
m
½f ðxi ; yj Þ K f½gðxi0 ; yi0 Þ K g
iZ1 jZ1
Cðu; vÞ Z sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
X m X m X m X
½f ðxi ; yj Þ K f 2
iZ1 jZ1
here, f(x,y) is the gray level value at coordinate (x,y) for
the original image and g(x 0 ,y 0 ) is the gray level value at
coordinate (x 0 ,y 0 ) for the target image, C is the maximum
correlation factor, f and g are the average gray values of
X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251
the image f(x,y) and g(x,y), respectively. The coordinates
(x,y) and (x 0 ,y 0 ) are related by the deformation which
occurred between the two images. If the motion of the
object relative to the camera is parallel to the image plane,
the relation between the coordinates (x,y) and (x 0 ,y 0 ) can
be expressed as:
8
>
> vu vu
< x 0 Z x C u C Dx C Dy
vx vy
(2)
>
> 0 vv vv
: y Z y C v C Dx C Dy
vx vy
where u and v are the displacement component for the
subset centers in the x and y directions, respectively. The
term Dx and Dy are the distances from the subset center to
point (x,y). Digital image correlation technology is used to
obtain the six deformation parameters for u, v, vu/vx,
vu/vy, vv/vx, vv/vy.
Based on the peak value and the symmetrical
character of the correlation coefficient C as shown in
Fig. 1, a cross search method is developed and this
makes the speed of the search about one order of
magnitude faster. First, the displacement in an integer
number of pixels (image unit) is extracted by determining
the average displacement of the deformed image with
respect to the reference image when the maximum of the
cross-correlation function is evaluated for each pixel
position (x,y) of the zone of interest. Second, a sub-pixel
correction of the displacement is obtained by determining
the maximum of a parabolic interpolation of the
correlation function. This interpolation is performed by
considering the maximum pixel and its eight nearest
neighbors. After finding the first peak-pixel, a quadratic
Lagrange interpolation function C 0 (x,y) of the correlation
function is adopted as shown in Eq. (3). Thus, the
precise position of the sub-pixel will be searched. It is
obvious that the nine correlation coefficients (A, B, J, D,
E, F, G, H, I) of a 3!3 area surrounding this peak point

m
½gðxi0 ; yj0 Þ K g 2
iZ1 jZ1
(1)
Fig. 1. The peak and symmetrical distribution of correlation
coefficients.
 X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251 247

can be determined.

C 0 ðx; yÞ Z Ax2 y2 C Bx2 y C Jx2 C Dxy2 C Exy C Fx

C Gy2 C Hy C I (3)

Then, the maximum value can be determined by the

differential function C 0 (x,y):
vC 0 vC 0
Z Z0 (4)
vx vy
After the above processing procedure, the sub-pixel
search will become more simple and precise. This kind Fig. 3. Test system on composite vessel.
of image recognition method will lead to much better
measurement of the displacement field.
3.2. Experimental setup

3. Experimental information Fig. 3 is the schematic configuration of the experimental

setup for digital speckle correlation technology, which
3.1. Composite pressure vessel consists of a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera, optical
fiber cold light source, image card and digital image
The composite pressure vessel used in this study was correlation processing software written in CCC language,
made from wound carbon fiber (T-700) with epoxy resin as and a personal computer. In this test, the cold light source
the matrix. The winding angle of the carbon fiber was 15.6 was used to illuminate the specimen surface. The CCD
and the vessel had eight fiber layers in the helical direction camera was used to record the speckle image of the
and nine layers in the ring direction with layer thickness of specimen with a resolution of 768!640 pixels. Then, the
0.2 mm. The pressure vessel was of 200 mm in diameter. image data was saved to a hard disk. After the correlation
The material constants of the composite vessel are given in calculation of the two images before and after deformation
Table 1 and the geometrical configuration is shown in Fig. 2. is performed, the full-field displacements of the specimen
surface are obtained. This test system gives a magnification
of 1.49, which yields a physical size of 660 pixel/cm!540
Table 1 pixel/cm on the specimen surface in the horizontal and
Material constants of the composite pressure vessel
vertical directions, respectively. In using the DSCM, the
Material type E1 E2 G12 n12 specimen surface is usually sprayed with black and white
(GPa) (GPa) (GPa) paint to form a random pattern. This pattern was applied by
Epoxy resin 3.33 3.33 1.23 0.35 first coating the surface with white paint and then allowing
Carbon fiber T-700 230 25 78 0.32 the overspray from a can of black spray paint to speckle the
white surface. It is easy to find the image pairs of this kind of
black and white pattern using the digital image correlation
method.
During the whole test, the lower end of the composite
pressure vessel was fixed by a clamp and the internal
pressure was created by an oil pump feeding into the top of
the vessel and its magnitude was recorded by a pressure
gauge. In this test, the observed zone of the digital image is
about 1.5!1.5 cm2. A three-element strain gauge (1!
1 cm) was used to measure strain on the specimen surface
close to the area used to obtain the digital image.

4. Experimental results and discussion

4.1. Speckle pattern of deformation in the composite

pressure vessel

The internal pressure was gradually increased leading to

Fig. 2. Composite pressure vessel. deformation of the composite vessel. During the whole
248 X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251

Fig. 4. Speckle images of composite pressure vessel surface.

Fig. 5. Deformation distribution of composite vessel.

 X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251 249

loading process, a series of speckle images with the

deformation information from the measured region were
captured and recorded digitally by the CCD camera,
providing a complete record of the movement of the speckle
particles in the measured region from 0 to 50 MPa. Fig. 4
shows two typical images for PZ25 MPa and PZ45 MPa.
These random black and white dot patterns indicate the non-
homogeneous deformation characterization of the compo-
site vessel under different pressure levels.

4.2. Evolution of displacement field of the composite vessel

Using the image correlation method, the full-field

Fig. 6. Correlation coefficients at the measured zone.
in-plane displacement component (u,v) of composite vessel

Fig. 7. Strain distribution of composite vessel surface DpZ5 MPa (from 20 to 25 MPa).
250 X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251
at different pressure levels are calculated by means of
DSCM software written with CCC language. Fig. 5 shows
the u and v full-field displacement distribution of the
composite vessel when the inner pressure is changed from
20 to 25 MPa and from 40 to 45 MPa, respectively. For all
correlation calculations, the correlation coefficient C is
above 0.94, which is shown in Fig. 6.
From Fig. 5, it can be seen that the distributions of u and
v displacement field are non-homogenous. The main reason
is that the carbon fiber composite’s anisotropic character-
istics result in a complex deformation state. Under the action
of internal pressure, the deformations of the composite
pressure vessel are influenced by some inherent meso-
structures like interface between the fiber and matrix,
deformation of fiber and matrix itself, etc.
4.3. Strain distribution of the composite pressure vessel
To evaluate the strain, the discrete displacement data is
interpolated by polynomial functions in the x and y
Fig. 8. Comparison of the strain measurement result.
direction, respectively. Then, the derivatives of the
displacements u and v were determined in the x and y
directions. Finally, the axial, the circumferential and
the shear strains were determined as follows:
vu
3x Z (5)
vx
vv
3y Z (6)
vy
vv vu
gxy Z C (7)
vx vy
According to the displacement field distribution obtained
by the digital speckle image correlation method, three strain
components are calculated by Eqs. (5–7). Fig. 7 gives the
strain field distribution (3x, 3y and gxy) at the given zone
under the inner pressure DpZ5 MPa from 20 to 25 MPa.
If the speckle images with deformation information
during the whole process of the applied inner pressure were
 X.F. Yao et al. / Polymer Testing 24 (2005) 245–251
recorded, the evolution of deformation in the composite
vessel can be determined with the increase of the applied
load.
4.4. Comparison between the result of digital speckle
correlation method and the strain gage technology
It is well known that the electronic strain gauge
technology can only give the so-called point strain data,
while the DSCM can give the full-field displacement and
strain distribution. In order to compare the results from the
two methods, the average strain data for the DSCM was
computed over the total observed surface. Fig. 8 gives the
average strain result measured using digital speckle image
correlation at different pressure levels. The results using
strain gauge technology are also shown in Fig. 8. The result
shows that 3y data from the DSCM are almost the same as
those using the strain gauge method. Although there are
some differences in strain data 3x and gxy between two test
methods, their error is smaller than 5%, which is acceptable
in the real engineering application.
5. Conclusion
The full-field deformed information of the composite
pressure vessel was measured by means of the DSCM. Some
valuable results are summarized as follows:
(1) The full-field displacement and strain distribution of the
composite pressure vessel were obtained for different
internal pressure levels.
(2) Comparing the results from conventional electronic
strain gauge technology and the DSCM, the relation
between the average strain and the internal pressure for
composite vessel shows a good agreement.
(3) The results reveal that DSCM is reliable for defor-
mation measurement of a composite pressure vessel in
real engineering applications.
251
Acknowledgements
This research project was supported by China Nature
Science Foundation (No. 19902008) and Aeronautical
Science Foundation.
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