Feasibility of Digital Image Correlation for Fatigue Cracks Detection under Dynamic Loading

We address non-contact detection of defects in the railway rails under their dynamic loading and propose to combine digital image correlation (DIC) and finite element modeling (FEM). We show that accurate model of defect-free rail operating at the same loading conditions as the inspected one provides a reliable reference for experimental data. In this study, we tested the rail samples with artificial and fatigue defects under cyclic loading, calculated displacement and stress distributions at different locations of the cracks via DIC and validated the obtained results by FEM. The proposed DIC-FEM approach demonstrates high sensitivity to fatigue cracks and can be effectively used for remote control of rails as well as for non-destructive testing of various other objects operating under dynamic loads.