Coupling tomographic and thermographic measurements for in-situ thermo-mechanical tests

Abstract In order to determine the thermo-mechanical properties of a complex 3D woven ceramic composite material, an experiment at high and inhomogeneous temperature and its dedicated full-field measurement procedure is developed. 3D tomographic images of the tested sample are captured at different stages of loading in a synchrotron beamline, and an infrared camera captures a side view of the sample as it rotates in the x-ray beam. A pin-hole projective model of the thermographic camera allows one to map the thermal field measured under numerous orientations onto a 3D mesh of the sample built from an initial tomographic image or a model. The projective model has to be calibrated, and an original procedure is proposed thanks to an integrated digital image correlation algorithm based on the ‘silhouette’ of the sample (as only the protruding edges outlining the sample shape can be seen clearly). This procedure is illustrated with an experimental case study.