Materials Today: Proceedings

Residual Strength Estimation of Damaged Steel Tubular Columns using Digital Image
Correlation
--Manuscript Draft--

Manuscript Number: MATPR-D-23-01421

Article Type: SI: SICE 2022

Keywords: Digital Image Correlation; Hollow steel sections; Residual Strength; Unanticipated
damage

Corresponding Author: Prithvi Sangani

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
Sangareddy, State INDIA

First Author: Prithvi Sangani

Order of Authors: Prithvi Sangani

Smita Singh

Anil Agarwal

Abstract: Tubular structural steel members are extensively used in modern constructions due to
their outstanding structural efficiency, improved capacity against torsion and buckling,
and aesthetic appearance. Steel tubular members may deform due to unanticipated
loading conditions and accidental damage by wrong handling while transporting to the
construction site, which induces damage leading to large permanent deformations. The
ultimate capacity of the steel members is reduced due to permanent deformations. In
such a case, the residual strength assessment of the member becomes critical before
using it in structural applications. This study proposes a methodology by incorporating
the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology to capture the whole field deformations
and deformed shapes and model the 3D damaged shape of the specimen. Initially, the
surface details in cartesian coordinates of the deformed specimen are obtained by
scanning using a set of two cameras in a 3D DIC setup. The scanned images are
stitched to obtain the complete 3D surface coordinates of the specimen. Further, the
data is processed by regularising nodes, surface smoothening using 2D Inverse
Fourier Transform, and converting the topographical information into the surface point
cloud data or nodes, which is used to generate a mesh. The mesh is imported into
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software like Abaqus, and the damaged specimen's
residual strength is predicted. The residual strengths of two (one circular and one
square) damaged tubes were predicted using the proposed methodology and validated
with the experimental results.

Suggested Reviewers: Suriya Prakash

suriyap@ce.iith.ac.in

Syed Nizamuddin Khaderi

snk@mae.iith.ac.in

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Cover Letter

Prithvi Sangani,
Research Scholar,
Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad,
ce20resch13001@iith.ac.in

February 13, 2023

Dear Editor-in-Chief,
I am writing to submit the manuscript titled "Residual Strength Estimation of Damaged Steel
Tubular Columns using Digital Image Correlation." The manuscript focuses on the
experimental and numerical evaluation of the strength assessment of damaged steel tubular
columns. The aim of this research was to develop a reliable and accurate method for estimating
the residual strength of damaged tubular columns, which are commonly used in various
modern-day structures due to their high structural efficiency and aesthetic appearance.
The use of steel tubular members in construction projects is often limited by their high
slenderness ratios, making them vulnerable to deformations and local imperfections caused by
unexpected loads or improper handling during transportation. This can lead to significant
permanent deformations, reducing the ultimate capacity of the members and rendering the
assessment of their residual strength critical for safe structural use. To address this issue, this
study proposes a methodology incorporating Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology to
capture whole field deformations and model the damaged shape of the specimen. The
methodology involves obtaining the surface details of the deformed specimen through a 3D
DIC setup, which includes the use of two cameras and stitching of scanned images. The data
obtained is processed using regularizing nodes, 2D inverse Fourier Transform, and conversion
into surface point cloud data, which is used to generate a mesh. The mesh is imported into
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software like Abaqus, and the residual strength of the damaged
specimen is predicted. The proposed methodology was tested and validated through the
prediction of the residual strength of two damaged tubes (one circular and one square) and
comparison with experimental results. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness
of the proposed methodology in accurately predicting the residual strength of damaged steel
tubular members.
The proposed methodology presents a valuable contribution to the field of condition
assessment of damaged steel tubular members. The use of DIC technology provides an
innovative and efficient means of capturing the whole field deformations and modeling the
damaged shape of the specimen, improving the accuracy of residual strength predictions. The
results of this study have far-reaching implications for the construction industry, providing a
reliable and cost-effective solution for assessing the residual strength of damaged steel tubular
members. This information is crucial for making informed decisions regarding the retrofitting
or rehabilitation of structures, thereby improving their sustainability. The proposed
methodology has potential applications for researchers, the construction industry, insurance
companies, etc. I confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not
under consideration by another journal. Also, all the authors have approved the manuscript and
agree with its submission.
Conference acceptance letter
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Prithvi Sangani <ce20resch13001@iith.ac.in>

Submission of SICE - 2022 full length paper in Material Today proceedings

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SICE Conference <sice22ses@mae.iith.ac.in> Mon, Feb 6, 2023 at 8:14 PM

To: Prithvi Sangani <ce20resch13001@iith.ac.in>, Smita Singh <ce17resch11007@iith.ac.in>, Anil Agarwal
<anil@ce.iith.ac.in>

Dear Authors,

Greetings of the day.

Thank you for your consideration and contribution to SICE 2022.

We like to inform you that your submission entitled “Residual Strength Estimation of Damaged Steel Tubular Columns
using Digital Image Correlation” has been shortlisted for publication in Materials Today: Proceedings as a full-length
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Manuscript Click here to view linked References

Residual Strength Estimation of Damaged Steel Tubular

Columns using Digital Image Correlation

Prithvi Sangani*1[0000-0003-4815-5426], Smita Singh2[0000-0003-2997-7651], and Anil

Agarwal3[0000-0002-3902-4304]
1PhD student, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
2PhD student, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
3Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India

Abstract. Tubular structural steel members are extensively used in modern con-
structions due to their outstanding structural efficiency, improved capacity
against torsion and buckling, and aesthetic appearance. Steel tubular members
may deform due to unanticipated loading conditions and accidental damage by
wrong handling while transporting to the construction site, which induces dam-
age leading to large permanent deformations. The ultimate capacity of the steel
members is reduced due to permanent deformations. In such a case, the residual
strength assessment of the member becomes critical before using it in structural
applications. This study proposes a methodology by incorporating the Digital Im-
age Correlation (DIC) technology to capture the whole field deformations and
deformed shapes and model the 3D damaged shape of the specimen. Initially, the
surface details in cartesian coordinates of the deformed specimen are obtained by
scanning using a set of two cameras in a 3D DIC setup. The scanned images are
stitched to obtain the complete 3D surface coordinates of the specimen. Further,
the data is processed by regularising nodes, surface smoothening using 2D In-
verse Fourier Transform, and converting the topographical information into the
surface point cloud data or nodes, which is used to generate a mesh. The mesh is
imported into Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software like Abaqus, and the dam-
aged specimen's residual strength is predicted. The residual strengths of two (one
circular and one square) damaged tubes were predicted using the proposed meth-
odology and validated with the experimental results.

Keywords: Digital Image Correlation, Hollow steel sections, Residual

Strength, Unanticipated damage

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ce20resch13001@iith.ac.in
2

1 Introduction

Steel hollow tubular members have been extensively used as compression members in
modern constructions due to their dominance in structural efficiency and aesthetic ap-
pearance [1]. The buckling behaviour of tubular structural members depends on the
cross-sectional shape. The most common cross-section shapes in the construction in-
dustry are circular, which has the advantage of high structural efficiency to resist local
buckling, and rectangular/square, which has better ease of construction and the flat
sides on these sections provide better options for the connections such as bolted con-
nection with the end plate at beam-column joint.
Handling these sections is difficult as they have less thickness when compared to
other dimensions. When these sections are subjected to damage due to improper han-
dling on the construction site and inadvertent loading conditions, the load-carrying ca-
pacity of the structural member is reduced. Such a reduction is more significant in com-
pression members since compression members are more sensitive to geometric imper-
fections. In this case, it is critical to estimate and understand the structural safety of the
column before using it as a structural member. The behavior and strength assessment
can be performed by modeling and analyzing the damaged member. Modeling of the
damaged member can be done by measuring the surface coordinates using Digital Im-
age Correlation. Saullo [2] proposed a simple imperfection measurement method that
applies to both small and large structures where the geometric imperfection measure-
ment is done on a pattern of composite cylinders using digital image correlation with a
pair of cameras and also discussed various practical aspects of using digital image cor-
relation (DIC).
This study presents a methodology to model the damaged specimen and import the
damaged model to finite element (FE) software to analyze and estimate the residual
strength of the specimen.

2 Experimental Procedure

The experimental procedure is divided into two stages. In the first stage, the initial
damage is imparted to the factory-made specimen, and in the second stage, the damaged
specimen from the first stage is further loaded to estimate the residual strength. The
initial damage to the circular hollow steel tube (C1) and a square hollow steel tube (S1)
is introduced by an axial compression on a compression testing machine (CTM) with a
maximum capacity of 5000 kN. The details of the specimen are given in Table 1. The
maximum axial displacement of the bottom platten on CTM was selected so as to de-
velop permanent and visible deformations in the specimen. Fig. 1(a) shows the experi-
mental setup for imparting damage to a square hollow steel tube specimen, and Fig. 1(b
& c) shows the undamaged specimen and damaged specimen of a square tube. The
relative axial displacement of column ends was recorded by an LVDT installed on the
moving platen of the CTM, as shown in Fig. 1(a). Axial Load vs. Axial strains were
measured and plotted as experimental in Fig. 5.
 3

The material properties of the specimen are investigated by conducting tensile cou-
pon tests. The coupon dimensions are shown in Fig. 2. The tensile coupon tests were
conducted in a 250kN MTS machine with the adopted loading rate as 0.05 mm/min
until the fracture [3], and the average strain value from the two strain gauges placed on
the opposite faces of the tensile coupon is considered for plotting stress-strain values.
The average engineering stress vs. engineering strain plots are shown in Fig. 3. The
material properties obtained from the tensile coupon test were used in the Abaqus.
In the second stage, the damaged specimens C1 and S1 after 3D scanning using DIC
(as explained in section 4) were again subjected to axial compression on CTM in a setup
similar to stage 1, and Axial Load vs. Axial strains were measured and plotted as shown
in Fig. 8(a & b).

Table 1. Specimen details

Specimen Thick- D(mm) L(mm) Yield Stress Ult.Stress E
ness(mm) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
C1 4.5 165.1 350 430 461 195000
S1 7.6 220 430 470 550 193000

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 1. (a) Experimental setup, (b) Undamaged, (c) Damaged square hollow steel tube

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the coupon

4

Fig. 3. Engineering Stress vs. Engineering Strain plot for C1 & S1

3 Numerical Analysis

Numerical analysis for undamaged specimen was conducted in the commercially

available finite element software ABAQUS [4]. The true stress-strain curves obtained
from the tensile coupon engineering stress-strain plots were incorporated into the anal-
ysis. The element adopted in the analysis is a four-noded reduced integration S4R shell
element, which was successfully used in Zhu et al. [5]. Similar to the experimental
column tests, the boundary conditions are assumed as fixed-fixed. The axial displace-
ment was applied at one column end by releasing a displacement in the axial direction
and restraining all the other degrees of freedom. The other end was restrained as a fixed
support. Suitable mesh size is determined by mesh convergence studies in order to
achieve both accurate results and computational efficiency. The finite element model
and the boundary conditions are shown in Fig. 4. The Axial Load vs. Axial strain for
circular and square tubes from finite element analysis is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 4. Finite element model of the square specimen

 5

(a) C1 – Undamaged (b) S1 - Undamaged

Fig. 5. Undamaged Axial Load vs. Axial strain plots

4 Procedure for modeling and analysis of damaged specimen

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a non-contact and optical method generally used
to measure deformations on a surface of any specimen. During deformation, this
method tracks the gray value pattern in small neighborhoods, called subsets. As shown
in Fig. 1(a), the damaged specimen images are captured by a pair of 9-megapixel cam-
eras with 50mm lenses. The position of the specimen is marked on the bottom platten
of CTM, as shown in Fig. 6. This marking allows rotating the specimen at an angular
interval of 450 without changing the position of the cameras [2]. The specimen is placed
in the position marked on the platten. The images are captured for 8 circumferential
positions in a DIC system using VIC SNAP software. Calibration and DIC pictures at
every circumferential position are captured separately.
The captured images are processed in the VIC 3D software [6], and post-processing
is done. The files obtained after post-processing in VIC 3D are processed in a com-
mercially available 3D Data Stitching application to obtain the stitched file, as shown
in Fig. 7(a). The stitching procedure is validated by scanning the undamaged circular
specimen and comparing the diameter. From Fig. 7(b), it can be observed that the di-
ameter from stitched image matches accurately with the diameter of the specimen.
The stitched object's topographical details are extracted from VIC 3D in terms of car-
tesian coordinates. The obtained surface point cloud is significantly finer when con-
verted into the mesh, which is computationally inefficient for finite element analysis.
The point cloud data is regularised using a predefined mesh grid and the ScatteredIn-
terpolant function in MATLAB [7]. The interpolated data may have minor rough-
ness/undulations, and this data can be smoothened by appropriately filtering the high-
frequency and low-amplitude terms using the 2D Fourier Transform. The filtered point
cloud data replicates the damaged specimen's surface. The point cloud data is imported
into an open-source system software MeshLab, and the triangular meshes are generated
6

using a Ball Pivoting Algorithm. The output file is imported as a StereoLithography

(STL) file, which can be analyzed in ABAQUS.
The damaged hollow steel tube is simulated in ABAQUS using a 3-node shell (S3) with
thickness defined and material properties used from coupon test results as shown in
Fig. 3. The boundary conditions are applied as per the experimental setup similar to the
undamaged model. It is then analyzed to obtain axial load vs. axial strain plots for dam-
aged specimens, as shown in Fig. 8(a &b)

Fig. 6. Circumferential markers & camera position for circular & square tubes

(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Stitched images of (a) damaged circular tube and (b) undamaged circular tube

5 Results and Discussions

 7

(a) C1- Axial load vs. Axial Strain (b) S1- Axial load vs. Axial Strain

(c) C1-Exp & FE damaged failure mode (d) S1-Exp & FE damaged failure mode

(e) C1-Ultimate Load (kN) comparison (f) S1-Ultimate Load (kN) comparison

Fig. 8. Comparisons for circular and square tubes

1. From Fig. 5, the finite element results match accurately with the experimental results
for the axial capacity of the undamaged tubes. However, there is a variation in the
post-peak behavior when compared to FE results. This can be improved by measur-
ing geometric imperfections and residual stresses and incorporating them into the
FE analysis.
2. The diameter of the stitched undamaged tube, as shown in Fig. 7, shows an excellent
agreement with the actual diameter of the tube. Hence it can be concluded that the
proposed methodology can be used for stitching with reasonable accuracy.
3. In this study, a simple methodology is proposed to model the damaged specimen
with stitched data and import it to ABAQUS for further numerical studies.
4. From Fig. 8(a & b), it can be observed that by imparting the damage to the specimen,
the stiffness of the damaged specimen was reduced when compared to the undam-
aged specimen, and it can be concluded that the imparted damage to the specimen
decreases the ultimate capacity and initial stiffness.
5. As shown in Fig. 8(c & d), the FE failure modes are well captured and match the
experimental failure modes.
8

6. The error in residual strength estimation for the damaged circular tube is 6% & the
damaged square tube is 11%. The estimation can be improved by incorporating ma-
terial damage properties in FE analysis for the damaged specimen. Nevertheless, the
proposed method predicts the residual strength with reasonable accuracy.

6 Declaration of Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by Pyrodynamics, Ben-
galuru, for setting up 3D-DIC.

References

1. Wardenier, J.: Hollow Sections In Structural Applications. 2nd Edition,

CIDECT, Geneva (2011)
2. Castro, S.G.P., Almeida, J.H.S., St-Pierre, L., Wang, Z.: Measuring geometric
imperfections of variable–angle filament–wound cylinders with a simple digital
image correlation setup. Compos. Struct. 276, (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114497
3. Huang, Y., Young, B.: The art of coupon tests. J. Constr. Steel Res. 96, 159–
175 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2014.01.010
4. ABAQUS, ABAQUS/Standard User’s Manual Volumes I-III and ABAQUS
CAE Manual, Dassault Systems Simulia Corporation, (2016)
5. Zhu, J.Y., Chan, T.M., Young, B.: Cross-sectional capacity of octagonal
tubular steel stub columns under uniaxial compression. Eng. Struct. 184, 480–
494 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2019.01.066
6. Correlated Solutions: Vic-2D. 59 (2009)
7. MATLAB (2020) R2020a 9.8.0.1538580
ORCID Information

ORCID Information

ORCID ID

Prithvi Sangani : 0000-0003-4815-5426

Smita Singh : 0000-0003-2997-7651

Anil Agarwal : 0000-0002-3902-4304
Declaration of Interest statement

Declaration of interests

☒The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships
that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

☐The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered
as potential competing interests: