Laboratory investigation of digital image correlation techniques for structural assessment

The Safety and Resilience Assessment of existing infrastructures are topics of essential importance at the global level, due to the aging of the existing heritage. Indeed, the economic expansion of post-world war II gave rise to the construction and renovation of public buildings, bridges, etc. Innovative technologies were introduced and found their ways into the standards (e.g. prestressed concrete, shotcrete, etc.). Reinforced concrete elements can develop cracking conditions due to tensile conditions in the structure that are normally absorbed by the reinforcement. Monitoring the development of cracking is very useful and the use of non-contact methodologies for the structural assessment may be of critical importance. In this work, laboratory tests on reinforced concrete beams are described with the use of the digital image correlation (DIC) technique to monitor the state of cracking. The integration of DIC with other sensors (e.g. fiber optic ones) is also investigated.