3D/4D strain mapping using in-situ X-ray microtomography

X-ray microtomography (XMT) has been utilized for the in-situ observation of various structural materials under external disturbance such as loading. In-situ XMT provides a unique possibility to access the three-dimensional (3D) character of internal microstructure and its time evolution behaviours non-destructively, thereby enabling advanced techniques for measuring local strain distribution. Local strain mapping is readily enabled by processing such high-resolution tomographic images either by the particle tracking technique or the digital image correlation technique. Procedures for tracking microstructural features which have been developed by the authors, have been applied to analyse localised deformation and damage evolution in a material. Typically several tens of thousands of microstructural features, such as particles and pores, are tracked in a tomographic specimen (0.2 - 0.3 mm ³ in volume). When a sufficient number of microstructural features is dispersed in 3D space, the Delaunay tessellation algorithm is used to obtain local strain distribution. With these techniques, 3D strain fields can be measured with reasonable accuracy. Even local crack driving forces, such as local variations in the stress intensity factor, crack tip opening displacement and J integral along a crack front line, can be measured from discrete crack tip displacement fields.