A 117 line 2D Digital Image Correlation code written in MATLAB

Abstract

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has become a popular tool in many fields to determine the displacements and deformations experienced by an object from images captured of the object. Although there are several publications which explain DIC in its entirety while still catering to newcomers to the concept, these publications neglect to discuss how the theory presented is implemented in practice. This gap in literature, which this paper aims to address, makes it difficult to gain a working knowledge of DIC, which is necessary in order to contribute towards its development. The paper attempts to address this by presenting the theory of a 2D, subset-based DIC framework that is predominantly consistent with state-of-the-art techniques, and discussing its implementation as a modular MATLAB code. The correlation aspect of this code is validated, showing that it performs on par with well-established DIC algorithms and thus is sufficiently reliable for practical use. This paper, therefore, serves as an educational resource to bridge the gap between the theory of DIC and its practical implementation. Furthermore, although the code is designed as an educational resource, its validation combined with its modularity makes it attractive as a starting point to develop the capabilities of DIC.