2021 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 35-40
Recently, numerous researches have been conducted with gel materials which are soft materials expecting it to be applied to biomimetic robots, soft actuators, and organ models for operation training. However, since the gel is very soft, it is difficult to measure and evaluate the deformation characteristics. This study is a part of the research project which is to develop an experimental system with a human head model that can simulate and measure the strain in the deep brain to clarify the mechanism of sports concussion. In this study, we propose a measuring technique for the strain inside a transparent gel by applying the particle image velocimetry and digital image correlation. Using the laser light sheet, the motion of the tracer particles which is mixed in the gel were visualized at an arbitrary cross-section. Then substituting the random pattern to the visualized particles in the digital image correlation, the strain distribution of the cross-section was obtained. The obtained strains were validated with engineering strain. Consequently, it was shown that the strain distribution in the gel could be accurately measured though it included some error in the vicinity of the edge of the measurement region.
