Determination of Tensile Properties of Polyester - Industrial Waste Red Mud Composites Using Digital Image Correlation (DIC)

The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique is an important method of evaluating material strain fields. Composite materials have inherently heterogeneous elastic properties, in the function of the different phases present in the composition, whereat the traditional techniques of deformation evaluation may not be sufficient to determine the mechanisms that eventually contribute to the failure of the material. The present work were evaluated, the tensile mechanical properties of polyester matrix composites loaded with an industrial residue of red mud, with a mass fraction of 20%. The properties were surveyed using the conventional technique of strain gauge and compared with the data obtained through DIC. The results showed that the DIC technique was accurate in monitoring the displacements and determining the average deformation of the tested specimens, in addition to providing ample deformation fields, for the evaluation of failure mechanisms throughout the sample request process.

Keywords:
Red mud; tensile properties; DIC; polyester composites