DIC Studio: An Automated, Low-Cost Smartphone-Based Digital Image Correlation Platform for Concrete Testing (Presented at ACI 123 Concrete Research Student Poster Session, Fall 2025, Baltimore, MD)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This poster was presented at the ACI 123 Concrete Research Student Poster Session during the ACI Concrete Convention – Fall 2025, held in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (October 27, 2025). DIC Studio is an automated, low-cost, smartphone-based digital image correlation (DIC) platform developed to make full-field, non-contact strain measurement accessible for concrete testing and fracture mechanics applications. The research addresses two key barriers to the widespread adoption of DIC in civil engineering: (1) the prohibitive cost of commercial software, and (2) the fragmented workflow of existing open-source solutions that require programming expertise. DIC Studio provides an integrated, end-to-end, no-code environment that unifies preprocessing, correlation, and post-processing within a single graphical user interface (GUI). The platform combines: Automated Preprocessing with speckle quality assessment and lens calibration; High-Performance Correlation using the IC-GN algorithm implemented in Ncorr C++; Parallelized Execution for faster computation; and A Fracture Mechanics Toolkit that computes Crack Mouth Opening Displacement (CMOD), Fracture Energy (Gf), and a novel Surface Damage Index (SDI). Validation with synthetic and experimental data demonstrated sub-pixel precision (RMSE < 0.005 pixels) and a 3.8× speed improvement over manual setups. A concrete Brazilian splitting test, captured using an iPhone 12 Pro, confirmed DIC Studio’s accuracy and reliability for full-field strain visualization and damage quantification. Key Contributions: A unified, open-source, platform-independent DIC workflow for material testing. A cost-effective, smartphone-validated acquisition system. Intelligent automation that minimizes user subjectivity. An integrated analysis suite for CMOD, Gf, and SDI extraction. Citation:Mirjafari, A., Asheghi Mehmandari, T., & Shokouhian, M. (2025). DIC Studio: An Automated, Low-Cost Smartphone-Based Digital Image Correlation Platform for Concrete Testing [Poster presentation]. ACI 123 Concrete Research Student Poster Session, ACI Concrete Convention – Fall 2025, Baltimore, MD, USA. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17466555 Acknowledgment:The authors would like to thank the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Morgan State University for their technical support and facilities.
Authors: Mirjafari, Ali, Asheghi Mehmandari, Tohid, Shokouhian, Mehdi
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7101693254
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