Applied Mechanics and Machine Construction Lab

Description

The research activity of the Machine Construction Group has expanded over the years with the development of testing techniques and equipment for shape acquisition and deformation measurement by means of digital image correlation techniques as well as characterisation techniques for materials like metals, elastomers and, recently, biological material.

Research activities

The research activity of the Machine Building Group is particularly varied; in particular, over the years, techniques and experimental devices have been developed to acquire 3D shapes and measure deformation fields through image analysis. The laboratory has optical equipment including CMOS cameras fixed or mounted on an anthropomorphic robot for their movement, and LCD projectors. The applications developed concern phase shift techniques for 3D surface profilometry and grid methods. In the laboratory, a code based on the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) for measuring deformation was also developed internally; this technique is applied both to full-scale components and to specimens of any type of material, from metals to polymers, from composites to elastomers, foams and biological materials. Furthermore, techniques have been developed for the study of the mechanical behavior of materials with the aim of characterizing the constitutive link that exists between tensions and deformations. The study is aimed at materials that exhibit both linear and non-linear and time-dependent behaviors. Starting from the experimental tests, the calibration of the models can be done both directly by analytical solvers and by reverse approach, using FEM modeling or optimization algorithms such as the Virtual Fields Method (VFM). Depending on the type of characterization, different aspects are taken into consideration: deformation speed, temperature, damage and fatigue, hysteresis.

Facility
  • Comau Smart S4 Robot
  • Test bench for Bulge Testing of elastomers
  • Zwick Z050 tensile testing machine
  • SP-2 Testing machine
  • Italsigma Rotary Flexion 
  • Optical equipment

Manager
Staff
   

Phone:
+39 071 220 4977

Room:
Q145_038