Work Package 3:  Development of reference materials

The requirement was to develop a traceable physical reference material that can be used to calibrate optical instruments used for strain measurement both during their manufacture and their use in-service together with a complementary virtual (or digital) reference material. Together the physical and virtual reference materials are intended provide a means of calibrating a complete system for optical strain measurement. Traceability to the international standards is provided via a continuous chain of comparisons to the primary standard for the metre.

Standardised tests that allow the fitness for purpose of an optical system of strain measurement have also been developed.  The standardised tests involve more complex strain distributions that facilitate the evaluation of optical strain measurement systems.

SPOTS Guidelines for calibration and evaluation of optical strain measurement

The reference materials are specified together with methodologies for their use in SPOTS Guidelines for Calibration and Evaluation of Optical Strain Measurement Systems and can be downloaded here.

Copies of the physical reference materials (W=10mm and thickness 7mm in aluminium) are available from the co-ordinator. There is a charge of $45 for postage and packing and a $560 deposit which will payable if the specimen is returned damaged or not returned within three months. Send a purchase order to Michigan State University (Department of Mechanical Engineering) from your organisation for:
(1) postage and packing: $45
(2) reference material: $560
An official purchase order should be sent by post to Professor Eann A. Patterson, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, 2555 Engineering Building, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA or emailed to: eann@egr.msu.edu. The purchase order will be processed three months after the reference material is sent to you for $45 if the reference material is safely returned or $605 if it is not.

The authors, designers, contributors, publisher, their sponsors and their employers accept no liability arising from the use of the reference materials or standardized tests mentioned on this website or the use of the documents in which they are described. The sale of materials produced based on or using the designs is prohibited without the written permission of the project co-ordinator.

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