Proceedings of the SEM Annual Conference
June 7-10, 2010 Indianapolis, Indiana USA©2010 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.

Application of High Speed Digital Image Correlation forVibration Mode Shape Analysis

Thorsten Siebert1, Matt J. Crompton2
1

Dantec Dynamics GmbH,Kässbohrerstr. 18, D-89077 Ulm, GermanyThorsten.Siebert@Dantecdynamics.com
2

Dantec Dynamics Inc., 200 Wiliams Dr., Ramsey, NJ 07446, USAABSTRACT
Digital speckle correlation techniques have been successfully proven to be an accurate displacement analysis toolfor a wide range of applications. With the use of two cameras, three dimensional measurements of contours anddisplacements can be carried out.
With rapid new developments in the field of digital imaging and computer technology, the capability of thistechnique is increasing, opening further applications in the fields of material testing, fracture mechanics andvibration analysis. The high resolution of the deformation measurements in space and time can accurately
determines the absolute position and displacements of objects, even if they display high amplitudes and large
rigid body movements. The absolute resolution depends on the field of view and is scalable. Calibration of theoptical setup is a crucial point which will be discussed in detail. Examples are described including the analysis of aharmonic vibration and transient events from real industrial applications showing the interaction of large
accelerations and complex rigid body motions.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years optical full-field measuring techniques are increasingly being used in research and industry as
development and design tools for improved characterization of materials and components. Besides moiré andinterferometer based techniques the digital image correlation method is widely used for full-field and three
dimensional displacement measurements [1-4].
Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a full-field image analysis method, based on grey value digital images, thatallows determination of the contour and surface displacements of an object under load in three dimensions. Dueto rapid new developments of high resolution digital cameras and computer technology, the applications for thesemeasurement methods have broadened. Since the system determines the absolute position and displacement of
the object in space, deformation measurements with very high resolution are possible even under the presence oflarge deformation amplitudes and macroscopic rigid body movements.

The displacement resolution depends on the field of view (typically down to 10-5 of the field of view) and therefore
is scalable, e.g. a few µm for an A4 paper size field of view depending on the number of pixels used. The
measurable displacement range for this configuration is from µm up to several cm.
Out of the contour and displacement measurement, the image correlation technique provides material parameters
far into the range of plastic deformation. Further data analysis tools allow the determination of the location and theamplitude of the maximum strain, the global strain distribution and behavior of crack growth. Analyzing thetemporal displacement by using e.g. Fourier analysis can give information about modal shape and vibration
amplitudes. Since this method is based on series of images it can be applied to many different time scales from afew Hz range up to several 100 kHz range.
PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION
Two imaging sensors, looking from different positions at an object, similar to human vision, provide enoughinformation to perceive the object as three dimensional. Using a stereoscopic camera setup (figure 1, left), eachobject point is focused on a specific pixel in the image plane of the respective camera.
With the knowledge of the imaging parameters for each camera (intrinsic parameters: focal length, principle pointand distortion parameters) and the orientations of the two cameras with respect to each other (extrinsicparameters: rotation matrix and translation vector), the position of each object point in three dimensions can becalculated.

Fig. 1. Principle of stereoscopic setup (left) and grey value pattern in different images on the camera.
Using a stochastic intensity pattern on the object’s surface, the position of each surface point in the two images
can be identified by applying a correlation algorithm. By using this correlation algorithm, a matching accuracy ofthe original and the transformed facet of better than 0.01 pixel can be achieved [5].
The stochastic pattern can be applied easily with a colored spray paint, printing or other transfer methods. The
size and distribution does influence the achievable resolution. An investigation about an optimum pattern andevaluation parameters can be found e.g. at Lecompte et al [6].
CALIBRATION
The process of determining the projection parameters (intrinsic and extrinsic imaging parameters) is described as
the calibration process. Images of a target with a known accurate pattern are recorded with both cameras
simultaneously. The system displays in real-time the tracking of target markers and automatically acquires asequence of images of the target positioned at different angles. From this sequence of images the projection
parameter of the whole system, with additional distortion parameter, is calculated based on the pinhole model.
The quality of the measurement is directly related to the accuracy of the projection parameters and by simplifying
the calibration process and providing quality feedback in this process, accurate measurements can be assured.
Typically eight images are sufficient to calculate all calibration parameters accurately.

ACQUISITION
Depending on the type of camera which is used for the image acquisition, several parameters and adjustments ofthe cameras can be made, e.g. exposure time, frame rate, brightness, contrast and area of interest. Typically aseries of a few up to several hundreds of images are acquired and saved during the experiment. The acquisition
can be started manually or fully automatically using various types of triggering. These images, combined with theprojection parameters, are the base for the evaluation.
EVALUATION
By applying the correlation algorithm, the position of all object points can be identified in the image from bothcameras. Using the projection parameters of the system, the 3-dimensional coordinates for each object point canbe calculated leading to a 3-dimensional contour of the object.
Following the changes of the grey value pattern for each camera along the loading steps, the surface
displacements of the object are calculated. The matching accuracy of the correlation algorithm resulting in adisplacement resolution down to 1/100 000 of the field of view for a MegaPixel CCD camera. For an A4 paper size
this gives a resolution in displacement of down to 3-4 µm. [5-8]
APPLICATIONS
Digital image correlation opens a wide range of potential applications. Since this technique is based on theanalysis of a series of grey value images, deformation and strain analysis of static as well as of dynamic events
can be performed. In the dynamic applications different types of excitation are used: a single frequency or afrequency sweep excitation, a shock excitation using a shock event and the use of noise excitation. A comparison
between measurements using DIC, accelerometers, strain gauges and simulation have been successfully carriedout on measurements of a bending beam using different excitation types [8, 9].
In the following we present three dynamic applications: a vibration analysis of a membrane, an impact test and anexcitation of a circuit board using white noise.
VIBRATION OF A MEMBRANE
During this experiment the vibration of a rubber membrane in front of a loudspeaker, which is excited close to aresonance frequency, was investigated. The size of the evaluated area is about 300 x 260 mm2. The used rubbermaterial has a porous surface, which gives a statistical grey value distribution, thus no extra preparation of thesurface was necessary. A white colour was used to increase the amount of diffusely reflected light. The
loudspeaker was excited at 59.9 Hz where a membrane was vibrating in resonance.
For image acquisition, high-speed cameras with 1280 x 1024 pixels resolution where used. The maximum frame
rate at full resolution of these cameras is 1000Hz, for this measurement the frame rate was reduced to 625Hz. In
figure 2 the setup including the high-speed cameras and the loudspeaker, is shown.

Fig. 2. Experimental setup with high-speed cameras, calibration target, loudspeaker and frequency generator forvibration measurement.

The image acquisition was started previous to the excitation of the loudspeaker. For the evaluation 150 images
corresponding to 0.25 seconds of testing were processed.
The results of the measurement are displayed as a 3-dimensional model. On the surface of the object’s model
different data can be mapped in order to display the full field information. The different data are contour
information (e.g. distances to Best-Fit plane), displacements (e.g. absolute X-, Y- or Z-deformation) or strains (e.g.
principal strains). Figure 5 shows the full field display of the out of plane deformation of the membrane at themaximum elongation during the vibration. The colours represent the amplitudes of displacements. In the lower
part of the graphic a spatial profile along the horizontal direction is displayed.
The maximum amplitude in this measurement is about 4 mm. The centre point and the circular area around thecentre are vibrating out of phase. In order to get more detailed information the displacements of a marked centre
point versus time is shown (figure 3). The evaluated series of images covers about 14 cycles of vibration. As it
can be seen from the curve, it takes only 1 to 2 excitation cycles until the system is vibrating in a stable andstationary mode.

CenterFig. 3. Full field out-of-plane deformation of the membrane at maximum deflection of the centre (top left and topright). Spatial profile along a horizontal line (bottom left) and temporal plot of the displacement of the centre point(bottom right).

For the next measurement the frequency of excitation was set to another resonance at 36.5 Hz. Figure 4 shows
the amplitude of vibration of the centre point and of a point in the lower left corner. The point in the centre vibrates
with amplitude of about 5 mm symmetrically in the positive and negative direction. At the corner point themembrane is fixed on the housing of the loudspeaker, thus this point moves only in the positive direction. The
amplitude is just about 0.05 mm. This example demonstrates the dynamic range, which can be covered with asingle full field measurement.

0,15

40,10

20,05

0-2-4-6050

100

150

2000,00
250-0,05-0,10Center
Corner-0,15

Displacement / mm

Displacement / mm

6CornerCenterrTime /msec

Fig. 4. : Out-of plane displacement of points in the centre and in the corner over time.
IMPACT TESTING
Besides harmonic events the technique of image correlation is suitable to analyze transient events. A phone drop
test is an example of a transient impact test. The phone was dropped from a height of 1m onto a steel plate. The
measurement was performed using high speed cameras running at a frame rate of 5 kHz. The setup of thecameras and the drop testing stand are shown in figure 5.

Fig. 5. : Setup for the phone drop test (left: high speed cameras; right: test stand).
As well as the frame rate for each experiment the exposure time is another important parameter. The exposure
time should be short enough in order to avoid motion blurring and freeze the image of the moving object. In thiscase an exposure time of 5 µs was used.
The acquisition of images was started by using an optical trigger. A series of about 400 images corresponding toa time sequence of 0.08 seconds was evaluated. Displacement data from the displacement of opposite corners of
the phone was extracted first. From the plot of vertical velocity (Figure 6) it can be observed that first the lower
right corner of the phone hits the ground. This impact generates an additional acceleration before the upper rightcorner hits the ground. The velocity of the upper corner increases by about 50% after the first impact. The
maximum acceleration is therefore shown to be when the second impact occurs.

4,0y Velocity / m/s

2,00,0-4,0-2,00,04,0-4,08,012,0

lower right corner
upper right corner-6,0-8,0Time / msec

Fig. 6. :.Velocity of two points as a function of timeIn addition to point data, the full-field behaviour of the object can also be analyzed. In this case the out-of plane
displacement due to the impact was investigated. The out-of plane displacement just after the second impact isshown in figure 7. Here the most dominant mode shape of the vibration can be observed. The maximum
amplitude of vibration is in the order of 0.35 mm.

Fig. 7. : Out-of plane displacement due to the second impact

NOISE EXCITATION
A circuit board was mounted on a shaker in a horizontal position. In an area of about 65 x 30 mm the movementof the circuit board was recorded at 2 kHz frame rate. The shaker was driven using white noise in a frequency
range between 200 and 1 kHz. In Fig. 8 the image of one camera is showing the area under investigation and thefull-field result as well as the displacement of a single point over time. The displacement of the point is in therange of ca. 40 µm.

Fig. 8: Field of view (left), full-field displacement at one measurement step (right top) and displacement of marked
point (cross) over measurement steps (right bottom).
By applying a frequency analysis at different points the main frequencies of the object can be determined. In thiscase an accelerometer indicates a main frequency at about 770 Hz. This frequency was found mainly in thecentre of the board where the accelerometer was placed and no elements are located. The reconstruction of themode shape at this frequency is shown in Fig. 9. The amplitude is in the range of 10 µm with a smooth shapewhich does not show areas of critical stressing of the board.

Amplitude / mm0.02
0.015

0.020.010-0.01-400.01
0.005
0-20020x-coordinate / mm

40-30-20-1001020 -0.005-0.01

y-coordinate / mm

Fig. 9: Reconstructed mode shape at 770 Hz
A frequency analysis at a point close to the longitudinal connector showed another peak at about 535 Hz. The
reconstructed mode shape is shown in Fig. 10. The amplitude of about 20 µm doubles the amplitude at 770 Hz.
The shape of this mode generates also gradients of displacement and strain in an area of the connector and small
electronic elements on the board. This frequency at 535 Hz will lead to higher chance of failure than otherfrequencies.
The application of this full-field method in combination with a frequency analysis allows the identification andreconstruction of the different mode shapes. This gives quantitative information about the behavior and damage ofthe sample at different frequencies.

Amplitude / mm

0.02
0.015

0.02
0.01
0-0.01
-40

0.01
0.005
0-20
020x-coordinate / mm

40-30-20-1001020 -0.005-0.01

y-coordinate / mmFig. 10: Reconstructed mode shape at 535 Hz
CONCLUSIONThis paper shows recent developments and applications of digital image correlation. Improvements in thecalibration process make the system significantly easier to use by decreasing calibration time and enhancing thereliability and quality of the results. Due to the modular concept of the hardware and the software this system canbe used for a wide range of applications. Based on a full field method, this technique allows the determination ofdisplacement amplitudes and vibration phases with high spatial and temporal resolution and within a large
dynamic range. Amplitudes from m to µm and frequencies up to several tens of kHz could be covered, giving rise
to applications of dynamic displacement and dynamic strain measurements. The use of high speed cameras
offers the chance of measuring full field deformation and strain fields for harmonic as well as transient events.
Applications of harmonic vibration, impact phenomenon and noise excitation were shown, where accurate full fieldmeasurements of displacements have been demonstrated. From these measurements different mode shapes canbe extracted and displayed.
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