Development of a Low-Cost Video Processing Technique for Generating Stress-Strain Diagrams in Rebar Tension Testing

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-884-4_16How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Rebar Tension Test; Stress-Strain Diagram; Digital Video Processing; Computer Vision; MATLAB; UTM; Sustainable Alternative

Abstract

The tension test of rebar is vital for Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) structural analysis. Traditionally, deformation is measured with human intervention using an extensometer and an elongation scale, while a Universal Testing Machine (UTM) applies load to the test specimen. To enhance the experiment, digital UTM with built-in software to generate stress-strain diagrams is used worldwide, which in turn requires a more financial and energy-hungry effort. This research aims to develop a MATLAB application to generate stress-strain diagram by processing smartphone-recorded experimental video at a low cost. The developed application can be considered a sustainable alternative with efficient energy consumption, complying with the 12^th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – Responsible Consumption and Production. To achieve the objective, digital image processing-based algorithm is utilized for the detection of color-marked endpoints of rebar gauge length obtaining instantaneous strain vs time data without using the costly extensometer. It is combined with the load vs time data obtained leveraging Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in MATLAB to plot engineering stress-strain diagram. Key techniques include RGB thresholding and Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) point tracking. The research shows that the computer-vision-based application can generate stress-strain diagram with required accuracy of 70% to 95% at a low cost. Despite integrating computer vision in structural health monitoring and geotechnical experiments, a specific algorithm for rebar tension testing has gained little attention. This research may potentially fill this gap with a further scope of enhancement using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based point tracking methods for future researchers.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - M. A. Rahman
AU  - M. T. Rahman
AU  - M. R. Alam
AU  - A. M. Nahid
AU  - M. R. Islam
AU  - S. Islam
AU  - M. F. Alam
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/18
TI  - Development of a Low-Cost Video Processing Technique for Generating Stress-Strain Diagrams in Rebar Tension Testing
BT  - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Engineering Research, Innovation, and Education 2025 (ICERIE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 128
EP  - 135
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-884-4_16
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-884-4_16
ID  - Rahman2025
ER  -