Lateral Displacement Measurement Device for Concrete Specimens with Noncylindrical Cross Section

The increasing need to calibrate and validate multiscale numerical models cries out for new experimental devices and methodologies. This paper presents an experimental measurement device of the lateral displacement of concrete specimens having noncylindrical cross section under uniaxial compression testing. This study provides the experimental and data monitoring methodologies needed for the calibration and validation of multiscale models. The system's intrinsic innovation relates to its ability to measure lateral displacement of noncylindrical concrete specimens. This paper demonstrates its implementation for rectangular cross sections, whereas other shapes require minor modifications. The main challenge of obtaining reliable measurements concerns the attachment of the gauges to specific spots along the specimen during loading. Trying to validate the suggested setup using a digital imaging correlation (DIC) setup failed due to separation of the monitored surface from the rest of the specimen. Therefore, the setup was validated by a test on an aluminum specimen with known mechanical properties. Finally, the methodology has been applied to calibrate and validate mesoscale numerical simulations using the lattice discrete particle model.