Overview of High-temperature Deformation Measurement Using Digital Image Correlation

Background Developments in digital image correlation (DIC) in the last decade have made it a practical and effective optical technique for displacement and strain measurement at high temperatures. Objective This overview aims to review the research progress, summarize the experience and provide valuable references for the high-temperature deformation measurement using DIC. Methods We comprehensively summarize challenges and recent advances in high-temperature DIC techniques. Results Fundamental principles of high-temperature DIC and various approaches to generate thermal environment or apply thermal loading are briefly introduced first. Then, the three primary challenges presented in performing high-temperature DIC measurements, i.e., 1). image saturation caused by intensified thermal radiation of heated sample and surrounding heating elements, 2) image contrast reduction due to surface oxidation of the heated sample and speckle pattern debonding, and 3) image distortion due to heat haze between the sample and the heating source, and corresponding countermeasures (i.e., the suppression of thermal radiation, fabrication of high-temperature speckle pattern and mitigation of heat haze) are discussed in detail. Next, typical applications of high-temperature DIC at various spatial scales are briefly described. Finally, remaining unsolved problems and future goals in high-temperature deformation measurements using DIC are also provided. Conclusions We expect this review can guide to build a suitable DIC system for kinematic field measurements at high temperatures and solve the challenging problems that may be encountered during real tests.