Measurement of Super-Pressure Balloon Deformation with Simplified Digital Image Correlation

A super pressure balloon (SPB) is an aerostatic balloon that can fly at a constant altitude for an extended period. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been developing a light-weight, high strength balloon made of thin polyethylene films and diamond-shaped net with high tensile fibers. Previous investigations proved that strength requirements on SPB members are satisfied even though the net covering the SPB sometimes becomes damaged during the inflation test. This may be due to non-uniform expansion, which causes stress concentration, however, no method exists to confirm this hypothesis. In this study, we tested a new method called Simplified Digital Image Correlation method (SiDIC) to check if it can measure the displacement of the SPB by using a rubber balloon. After measuring the measurement accuracy of the Digital Image Correlation method (DIC) and SiDIC, we applied both DIC and SiDIC to a rubber balloon covered just with the net. Interestingly, SiDIC entailed a smaller amount of data but could measure the deformation more accurately than DIC. In addition, assuming the stress concentration, one part of the net was bonded to the balloon to restrict the deformation. SiDIC properly identified the undeformed region.