The use of advanced optical measurement methods for the mechanical analysis of shear deficient prestressed concrete members

© 2016, The Author(s). This paper investigates on the use of advanced optical measurement methods, i.e. 3D coordinate measurement machines (3D CMM) and stereo-vision digital image correlation (3D DIC), for the mechanical analysis of shear deficient prestressed concrete members. Firstly, the experimental program is elaborated. Secondly, the working principle, experimental setup and corresponding accuracy and precision of the considered optical measurement techniques are reported. A novel way to apply synthesised strain sensor patterns for DIC is introduced. Thirdly, the experimental results are reported and an analysis is made of the structural behaviour based on the gathered experimental data. Both techniques yielded useful and complete data in comparison to traditional mechanical measurement techniques and allowed for the assessment of the mechanical behaviour of the reported test specimens. The identified structural behaviour presented in this paper can be used to optimize design procedure for shear-critical structural concrete members.