Analysis of crack growth behavior in a double cantilever beam adhesive fracture test by different digital image processing techniques

Double cantilever beam (DCB) tests are common experiments in the field of adhesive fracture mechanics. During such an experiment, both the load and the crack length have to be monitored. Digital image processing techniques offer interesting possibilities in various fields of science. Automated analyses may significantly reduce the necessary manpower for certain cumbersome tasks. The analysis of large series of images may be done in less time, since automated image processing techniques are able to work efficiently and with constant quality 24 h per day. In this work, a series of images obtained by a high‐speed camera is analyzed in order to determine the crack growth behavior during a DCB test. The present work represents a contribution to the effort of automating the crack growth measurement, by proposing and comparing different automated techniques.