A2.2 - Large-Scale Digital Image Correlation for Aeronautical Structures with Complex Geometry: End-to-end Workflow and Validation on an Engine Nacelle
- Event
- ETTC 2026 - European Test and Telemetry Conference
2026-06-09 - 2026-06-11
Nuremberg - Chapter
- Imaging & Video
- Author(s)
- R. Flor, A. Depresseux, F. L. Albaret - Airbus Operations SAS, Toulouse (France), R. Gras, J. Radzion - EikoSim, Montrouge (France)
- Pages
- 27 - 34
- DOI
- 10.5162/ettc2026/A2.2
- Price
- free
Abstract
Digital Image Correlation (DIC) provides dense displacement fields and, by spatial differentiation, strain fields, and has become a mature, widely documented optical measurement technique for experimental mechanics and structural testing. While its performance is well established in controlled laboratory conditions, transferring DIC to full-scale aeronautical components remains challenging because scaling up the field of view and the structural size amplifies nonidealities: strong 3D curvature and occlusions, constrained camera placement, time-varying outdoor illumination, large data volumes, and the need for defensible uncertainty and confidence metrics. Large-scale, non-intrusive deployments have nevertheless demonstrated feasibility in flight-test contexts using Image Pattern Correlation Technique (IPCT), including wing deformation measurements on transport aircraft and related campaigns. Reported in-flight measurement workflows highlight practical issues that become critical at scale (reference-frame definition, operational constraints, stability of calibration), while achieving sub-millimetric displacement accuracy in representative configurations (e.g., order 0.2 mm in an in-flight wing deformation context)...