Engineering Week 2024
For Engineering Week 2024, we honor the iconic Gervais Street Bridge in Columbia, SC (the headquarters of Correlated Solutions for 25 years). Optical measurement technologies like Digital Image Correlation help bridge the gap between modeling and testing in additive manufacturing, and Correlated Solutions is excited to provide the tools for young researchers to push engineering into the future.
Test Details: We printed an open spandrel arch in PLA using an FDM printer. Speckles (0.007”) were applied with the VIC Speckle Pattern Application Kit. We mounted the model in an MTS Test Frame to conduct a compression test, and used a pair of FLIR systems Oryx 8.9 MP cameras. These cameras have a resolution of 4096 px x 2160 px. This is ideal for a test piece with a longer aspect ratio. Calibration was achieved with new, high resolution, laser-marked targets manufactured by Correlated Solutions. DIC analysis was performed in VIC-3D and relevant plots and extractions exported using the iris data visualization engine.
Happy Engineering Week 2024! Welcome to the Future!
Any engineering project comes with unexpected challenges and multiple iterations. For this test, we printed 8 bridges and tried several mounting strategies before finding the solution.
Here are some behind-the-scenes shots of the test.
