Creep deformation measurement using quartz optical ber

X.Y. He
a
, J. Xia
a
, C. Quan
b,
*
, C.J. Tay
b
, S.D. Tu
c
a
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, People's Republic of China
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Chemical Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009,
People's Republic of China
Received 19 September 2000; received in revised form 20 December 2000; accepted 10 January 2001
Abstract
This paper describes an optical system for high temperature creep strain measurement using quartz optical ber,
super long working distance microscope and digital image processing techniques. In this system one end of the quartz
optical bers is arrayed in a small area on the specimen surface and the other end is illuminated by a laser beam. The
ber ends on the specimen surface form the spot array. The small optical spots on the specimen are tracked by a CCD
camera and the images are processed by digital image processing software. The diameter of each quartz ber is 100 lm
and the bers can be arrayed in a small area. The local strains are determined by measuring the variety of relative
distance between two spots. Experimental results of local creep strain on the welding joints of 15CrMo and HK40 at
850C are obtained. 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords: Quartz optical ber; Digital image processing; High temperature strain; Sub-pixel
1. Introduction
In the power and chemical industry many
equipment work under high temperature, where
the working temperature is often greater than
1000C. The equipment in these plants are often
fabricated with welded components and integrity
of these components is critical. In order to study
the properties of high temperature creep of these
components the local deformations of the com-
ponents need to be measured in a high temperature
environment. Most conventional strain and pres-
sure sensors do not operate reliably over 300C.
Therefore, fused silica based optical ber sensors
which can withstand up to 900C are normally
used [1]. Many optical methods are used to mea-
sure high temperature strain deformation. Using
three directions of illumination and one direction
of observation, the necessary information for the
reconstruction of a three-dimensional deformation
vector can be recorded at the same time. Digital
holographic interferometry can also be used to
determine high temperature strain. Electric weld-
able strain gauge has been used for carbon steel at
temperature up to 500C [2]. However, because of
the zero shift of the strain gauge, the method
1 April 2001
Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986
www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65-8748089; fax: +65-779-
1459.
E-mail address: mpeqcg@nus.edu.sg (C. Quan).
0030-4018/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
PII: S0030- 4018( 01) 01044- 6
cannot be used for long term measurement. In
1978 another system was developed for measuring
strain at short duration from seconds to minutes at
high temperatures up to 3000 K. Using two small
ceramiccement targets mounted on a specimen
with a digital line scan camera the targets can be
tracked automatically. The targets are illuminated
with a laser and viewed through a narrow-
band interference lter which eliminates specimen
thermal radiation [3]. In the imaging system, the
centroid method has been widely used for identi-
cation of the spatial location of images of various
types to sub-pixel accuracy. One-dimensional
centroid has been used for light stripe center lo-
cation in surface measurement systems using active
triangulation [4] and two-dimensional centroid has
been used to track the grid points and star [5,6].
Fillard proposed Fourier phase shift (FPS) anal-
ysis method, which could calculate the position of
more complex signals at sub-pixel accuracy [7].
Shu et al. analyzed Gaussian spot image model for
centroid detection and optimized parameters of
the model with computer simulations [8].
In the present system the quartz optical ber is
used as the target. It has many advantages over
conventional sensing technologies. One capability
of quartz optical ber sensors is its ability to op-
erate in high temperature environment. As the
diameter of quartz ber is only 100 lm the bers
can be arranged in a small area. The local strains
are determined by measuring the variation of rel-
ative distance between two spots. The ber can
withstand up to 1000C by xing it onto the spec-
imen using ceramic cement. Theory of the method
and experimental results are presented.
2. Spot tracking and strain calculation
2.1. The centroid method for spot tracking
Fig. 1 shows each end of the bers mounted on
an edge of a specimen while the other end of the
bers are illuminated by a single-mode HeNe
laser (8 mW) of wavelength 632.8 nm. The length
of the bers (single mode) is about 80 cm. Power
supply to the laser are kept stable in order to en-
sure the stability of the laser and light intensity.
However, since the position of each ber end is
determined from the peak intensity of the emitted
light, the stability of illuminating laser does not
have a signicant inuence on the measurement of
ber position. The spot marks are focused onto the
CCD sensor of a camera by a super long working
distance microscope. The CCD sensor is located in
the image plane of the microscope. The CCD
camera converts optical signal into equivalent
electric signal. The electrical signal is digitized into
an array of 576 768 pixels by the analog-
to-digital converter and recorded by a PC. The gray
value distribution of the digital image is gx; y
(Fig. 2), the area x
b
; y
b
; x
e
; y
e
of spot is determined
by the spot searching software. The center x
c
; y
c

of spot can be calculated using the following

equations and the spot can be tracked by its center
[9].
x
c

P
y
e
yy
b
P
x
e
xx
b
xgx; y
P
y
e
yy
b
P
x
e
xx
b
gx; y
y
c

P
y
e
yy
b
P
x
e
xx
b
ygx; y
P
y
e
yy
b
P
x
e
xx
b
gx; y
1
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a high temperature creep specimen.
80 X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986
2.2. Strain calculation
The bers are xed on the side surface of the
specimen using ceramic cement (Fig. 1). The
original distance between the centers of the bers
is D. This distance is extended to D
0
after the
specimen creeping (see Fig. 3). Light spots are
focused onto a CCD sensor by a super long
working distance (distance between the object and
objective lens) microscope. In order to obtain
highest resolution one image contains only two
light spots. Fig. 4 shows the image pattern of the
light spots. The original and deformed distances
between the spots on the CCD sensor are d and d
0
respectively. Assuming the magnication of the
microscope and the pixel size of CCD sensor are
constant the strain can be calculated using the
following equation:
e
d
0
d
d
2
where e is the creep strain. The unit of d and d
0
is in
pixel number. If the position of the spots is de-
termined at sub-pixel level higher strain sensitivity
could be obtained. Usually, d is approximately 500
pixels for a 576 768 pixel image. If the position
of a spot is determined from one pixel, the re-
sulting strain sensitivity is 0.2% (1/500). However,
if the position of the spot is determined from 0.05
pixel, a 0.01% (0.05/500) strain sensitivity can be
achieved. In the current system, the ber position
tracking is from 0.04 pixel upward; therefore, the
sensitivity is approximately 0.01%. The cement
layer is thin and hence it does not aect the mea-
sured results. The microscope and CCD camera
are kept at a distance from the furnace (>40 cm)
Fig. 3. Small spots tracking principle.
Fig. 4. Image pattern of two light spots.
Fig. 2. Gray value distribution of a spot.
X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986 81
and thus there is no signicant temperature change
in the vicinity of the microscope and CCD camera.
3. Experiment results of high temperature test
3.1. HK40 specimen
Fig. 1 shows a HK40 test specimen which has a
weld joint of 3 8 mm
2
. In this study, six quartz
bers which were mounted on the edge of the
specimen over an 8-mm distance were adequate to
provide necessary data for the local deformation
analysis. The center distance between each ber
is 1.6 mm. The ber diameter is 0.1 mm with a
loading stress of 50 MPa. The specimen was placed
in a high temperature furnace (Fig. 5). The other
ends of the bers were illuminated by a laser beam.
The ber ends could be viewed by the microscope
through a small glass window on the furnace and
the spots displayed on a screen using a CCD
camera and a digital frame grabber. Special soft-
ware was developed and used to process the
images and determine the variation of distance
between the spots. As the centroid position of each
spot is calculated using the coordinate and gray
values (see Eq. (1)) accuracy in sub-pixel level (0.05
pixels) is achieved. Table 1 shows the results ob-
tained for creep strains at 850C temperature for
112 h. Columns 26 indicate the relative displace-
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of high temperature creep deformation measurement system.
Table 1
Creep strain of HK40 welded joint at 850C
Time (h) Relative displacement between two marks (lm) Strain, e (%)
12 23 34 45 56 16
0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.00
1 1.0 1.1 1.5 0.8 2.4 6.8 0.09
12 2.0 2.8 2.1 1.4 6.2 14.5 0.18
20 3.0 3.0 3.0 1.9 9.2 20.1 0.25
36 6.0 3.5 3.8 3.3 10.8 27.4 0.34
45 6.9 3.9 4.1 3.7 11.2 29.8 0.37
50 7.6 4.0 4.3 4.3 11.9 32.1 0.40
60 8.7 4.3 4.6 5.0 14.0 36.6 0.46
64 9.4 4.7 4.8 5.5 14.7 39.1 0.49
69 10.0 5.1 4.8 5.8 15.2 40.9 0.51
74 10.1 5.6 4.9 6.1 16.0 42.7 0.53
85 11.0 7.0 5.2 6.5 17.2 46.9 0.59
95 12.8 7.7 5.5 7.3 18.1 51.4 0.64
108 18.4 8.7 7.1 9.0 19.0 62.2 0.78
112 39.4 8.9 8.9 10.8 21.1 89.1 1.11
82 X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986
ment between two adjacent bers. Column 7
shows the relative displacement between bers 16
and the last column shows the average strain (e)
between bers 1 and 6. The average creep strain (e)
versus time relationship is shown in Fig. 6.
3.2. 15CrMo specimen
A 15CrMo specimen with a welded cross-sec-
tional area of 3 10 mm
2
and a loading stress of
165 MPa is shown in Fig. 7. A total of 15 bers
were mounted on dierent area of the specimen.
Seven bers were mounted over a 5 mm length on
the welding area; ve bers over a 5 mm length on
the heat aected zone (HAZ) (Fig. 7) and three -
bers over a 1.5 mm length on the substrate material
area. In this study, 15 bers were considered ade-
quate for measuring the local strain in dierent
areas of the specimen at a test temperature of
550C. The results are shown in Table 2. Columns
215 of Table 2 indicate the relative displacement
between adjacent bers and the last column shows
relative displacement between bers 1 and 15. The
creep deformation between two adjacent bers is
shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 9 shows the total creep de-
formation of the welded joint over a period of 90 h.
4. Concluding remarks
An experimental method for measuring creep
deformation at high temperature has been de-
scribed. In this study HK40 and 15CrMo alloys
are chosen for illustration since these are materials
commonly used as high temperature components
in industries such as the nuclear and aerospace
Fig. 6. Creep strain curve of HK40 at 850C.
Fig. 7. Spot array on a 15CrMo specimen.
X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986 83
Fig. 8. Creep deformation between two points on dierent areas of a 15CrMo specimen.
Table 2
Local deformation between dierent locations of a 15CrMo welded joint
Time (h) Relative displacement between two marks (lm)
12 23 34 45 56 67 78 89 910 1011 1112 1213 1314 1415 Total
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 6.7 0.2 1.9 0.3 0.1 0.2 1.5 1.6 0.4 0.5 0.3 5.1 2.1 0.5 21.4
5 14.6 0.6 2.3 0.7 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.1 0.7 1.2 1.1 8.3 3.2 0.7 40.1
8 16.9 0.8 2.8 0.8 2.0 2.0 3.1 2.7 0.9 2.0 1.4 10.3 3.5 0.8 50.0
17 24.6 1.1 3.4 1.5 3.0 2.9 4.8 3.5 1.0 2.7 1.8 15.6 3.9 0.9 70.7
31 33.1 1.7 4.5 2.1 3.6 4.3 6.7 4.2 1.1 3.3 2.2 22.8 3.9 0.9 94.4
47 44.5 2.1 6.4 2.6 3.9 4.5 7.7 4.8 1.2 3.4 2.4 30.3 3.9 1.0 118.7
55 51.2 2.3 7.7 3.0 4.2 4.9 8.2 4.9 1.2 3.5 2.6 31.5 4.0 1.2 130.4
66 54.6 2.5 8.8 3.4 5 6.5 9.2 5.2 1.3 3.8 3.1 35.7 4.3 1.3 144.7
73 58.3 2.7 9.2 3.7 5.5 9.0 10.0 5.7 1.4 4.3 3.5 40.4 4.9 1.8 160.4
80 65.4 2.9 10.2 4.1 6.2 11.2 11.6 6.8 1.9 5.0 4.0 44.3 5.5 2.4 181.5
89 75.7 3.9 12.1 5.4 7.7 14.9 14.5 8.9 2.9 8.2 5.8 52.7 7.0 4.1 223.8
84 X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986
industry. The method is based on computer aided
tracking using a CCD camera and a super long
working distance microscope. As the system mea-
sures the relative deformation between two ber
spots the output of the measurement system is
more stable. Zero shifting of the system is no more
than 0.04 pixels. For an image size of 576 768
pixels a 0.01% strain (100 microstrain) sensitivity
has been achieved. However, for local creep be-
havior analysis, higher sensitivity in strain mea-
surement may be required. This can be achieved
with a higher resolution CCD camera and frame
Fig. 8 (continued)
X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986 85
grabber. In the present test the temperature ranges
from 550C and 850C and the results show that
the illumination spot of the quartz ber is still
observable at 1000C. With modication of
the current system, the technique could be devel-
oped to measure creep strain and deformation at
1000C.
Acknowledgements
The nancial support provided by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
under contract number 19472019 is gratefully ac-
knowledged.
References
[1] T. Wavering, J. Greene, S. Meller, T. Bailey, C. Kozikow-
ski, K. Murphy, M. Camden, L. Simmons, Proc. SPIE 3585
(1999) 400405.
[2] N.M. Silva, O.R. Lourenco, P.D. Gomes, T.R. Mansur,
Proc. SPIE 2921 (1996) 244249.
[3] R.H. Marion, Exp. Mech. 18 (1978) 34140.
[4] B.F. Alexander, K.C. Ng, Opt. Eng. 30 (1991) 13201331.
[5] J.S. Sirkis, Opt. Eng. 29 (1990) 4851493.
[6] P.M. Salomon, T.A. Glavich, Proc. SPIE 252 (1980) 64
74.
[7] J.P. Fillard, Opt. Eng. 31 (1992) 24652471.
[8] Y.S. Shu, X.P. Wu, J. Exp. Mech. 10 (1995) 3844 (in
Chinese).
[9] X.Y. He, H.G. Yang, W. Gao, Proc. SPIE 2807 (1996)
292297.
Fig. 9. Creep deformation of a 15CrMo specimen at 550C.
86 X.Y. He et al. / Optics Communications 190 (2001) 7986