Speckle photography for measuring 3-D deformation inside a transparent soil model

J. Liu, M. Iskander

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This paper addresses the needs for non-intrusively measuring 3-D internal soil deformation for various geotechnical engineering problems. In this study transparent soils are used to model a soil profile of sand overlying soft clay. Transparent soils are made of either transparent amorphous silica gels or powders with a pore fluid having the same refractive index. Conventional geotechnical tests showed that transparent soil exhibited macro-geotechnical properties similar to those of natural soils. A comparison study also showed that transparent soils can be used to simulate natural soil in model tests. An optical system consisting of a laser light, a CCD camera, a frame grabber, and a computer was developed to optically slice the transparent soil model. A distinctive laser speckle pattern is generated by the interaction between laser light and transparent soil. Speckle photography was used to calculate the 2-D displacement field by cross-correlating two consecutive images captured during footing settlement. A 3-D displacement field under a model footing was obtained in Matlab® by combining multiple slices of 2-D displacement fields. Test results showed that the developed optical system and transparent soil are suitable for studying 3-D soil-structural interaction problems

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
Subtitle of host publicationThe Academia and Practice of Geotechnical Engineering
Pages498-501
Number of pages4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, ICSMGE 2009 - Alexandria, Egypt
Duration: Oct 5 2009Oct 9 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering: The Academia and Practice of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume1

Other

Other17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, ICSMGE 2009
Country/TerritoryEgypt
CityAlexandria
Period10/5/0910/9/09

Keywords

  • Digital image cross-correlation
  • Internal 3-D displacement field
  • Optical test
  • Speckle photography
  • Transparent soil

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology

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