Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2020) 13:1060

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-06044-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Experimental evaluation of failure characteristics of coal using 2D

digital image correlation approach
Nutan Shukla 1 & Manoj Kumar Mishra 1

Received: 4 December 2019 / Accepted: 18 September 2020

# Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020

Abstract
Efficient execution of the underground coal extraction depends on the accuracy of deformation measurement of the pillars. The
basic design information as stress-strain behavior is collected from the laboratory investigation. Contact-based deformation
measurement approaches have limitations like data insufficiency, proneness to signal loss, physical damage, etc. In this inves-
tigation, a contactless technique like digital image correlation (DIC) has been evaluated for its applicability on coal specimen.
Coal specimens from 100-m depth have been investigated for their stress-strain behavior through DIC as well as other conven-
tional methods, i.e., strain gauge and linear variable differential transformer (LVDT). The deformation was found out from a set
of images recorded and analyzed using the software StrainMaster. In the image analysis, the optimum subset size was found to be
99 × 99 pixels with a step size of 8 pixels. The average threshold stress levels of crack initiation and crack damage in uniaxial
compression were observed to be 43.72% and 63.6%, respectively. DIC exhibits higher sensitivity to deformation of coal as
compared to that by LVDT and strain gauges and proven to be a promising and dependable technique for coal pillar analysis.

Keywords DIC; . LVDT; . Coal sample; . Strain; . Crack initiation; . Crack damage;

Background of the problem correlation, a non-contact-based way of measurement

The ever-increasing demand for coal energy has forced man-
kind to opt for extending the mining activity to deeper levels.
The safety of the underground mine operations depends large-
ly on its pillars. Coal being a heterogeneous material contains
inherent geogenic weaknesses such as cracks, fractures, and
fissures. It is often observed that different inherent as well as
developed cracks weakens the integrity of pillars due to over-
burden as well as mining operations. Those cracks propagate
and eventually lead to failure. Hence, the knowledge of defor-
mation magnitude suffered by coal pillar is very important for
its safe design. In this study, the deformation behavior of the
coal specimens has been investigated through digital image
Responsible Editor: Murat Karakus
* Nutan Shukla
nutan.shukla1992@gmail.com
Manoj Kumar Mishra
mkmishra@nitrkl.ac.in
1
Department of Mining Engineering, National Institute of Technology
Rourkela, Rourkela, India
technique.
The conventional mechanism to study the deformation be-
havior has been through contact-based approaches such as
strain gauges, acoustic emission sensors, seismic, micro-seis-
mic, etc. (Perez et al. 2015). Those have limitations like dis-
turbances in contact, weakening of contact elements due to
environmental factors, inaccurate data due to heterogeneity
of the whole body and surrounding noise, and size of sample
dataset which were addressed using non-contact-based
approaches.
Digital image correlation (DIC), a non-interferometric,
non-contact-based technique is an evolving technique for de-
formation measurement. It involves taking continuous images
during tests and comparing a set of deformed images with that
of reference or original image and finding out correlation be-
tween them in terms of change in pixel relating to change in
displacements. The measurement setup required for this tech-
nique deals with an imaging device, monocular in case of 2D
DIC or stereo for 3D DIC (Sutton 2008). The digital image
correlation technique is flexible in terms of spatial resolution
and dynamical performances. The DIC code can be used to
analyze both large-scale specimens as well as that of small
size. The accuracy of DIC method is also steadily increasing.
1060 Page 2 of 16
However, there are limited documentations available on the
efficiency of applicability of DIC on heterogeneous material
like coal.
In this investigation, 2D DIC has been used to study the
uniaxial deformation behavior of coal specimens. The results
have been compared with that of the conventional techniques
such as strain gauge and LVDT. The crack propagation of coal
under loading condition has also been studied in detail using
DIC method.
State of art
Coal pillar strength is paramount not only for the safety of
mine but also on volume of extraction. So, the deformation
behavior, i.e., stress-strain data, is very important for its safe
design. Both in the laboratory as well as field, contact-based
techniques like strain gauges, convergence meters/LVDTs,
etc. are used to establish the stress-strain deformation behav-
ior. There are numerous instances like use of protection and
covering of setup using metal foils to increase the durability
(Zymelka et al. 2017), limited working period of strain gauge,
strong influence by seasonal temperature variation (Hu et al.
2018), and inability to sense any undulation less than 10 μm
(Masaki et al. 2019) where special care has to be taken to
obtain error free data using strain gauge. DIC technique has
evolved to be a strong alternative for dimensional change
measurement (Ladicola et al. 2012).
Sudarsanan et al. (2019) utilized digital image correlation
(DIC) technique to calculate surface strains in reinforced as-
phalt concrete beams using fatigue test with geosynthetics.
The DIC analysis measured the vertical deflection of the beam
within a coefficient of variation of 3.3% as compared to that
by LVDT. Wu et al. (2019) used digital image correlation to
monitor the health of wind turbine blades leading to mechan-
ical failure and same had been validated simulating the defects
in laboratory setup. They opined that DIC was a viable tech-
nique in measuring health of a 5-kW wind turbine in opera-
tion. Aydin et al. (2018) adopted 3D DIC technique to mea-
sure exact fracture height of flat steel specimens of various
thicknesses (0.4 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.6 mm). The data from
DIC technique compared favorably with that of by height
gauge. Lin et al. (2019) employed DIC technique to perform
thermal shock tests to observe fracture behavior in brittle ma-
terials used in hypersonic vehicles. It calculated surface strains
of brittle materials before thermal shock fracture. The time to
fracture which decides whether or not brittle material can be
able to meet the safety requirement was computed using mor-
phological surface image captured by a charge-coupled device
(CCD). Xing et al. (2018) used the 3D-DIC technique to study
full field strain of rock under dynamic compression testing.
The DIC captured images after loading condition at a frame
rate of 200,000 frames per second (fps) having 256 × 256
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060
pixel resolution with the help of two high-speed cameras. A
comparative study was carried out between 2D-DIC and 3D-
DIC in which the error in 2D-DIC was up to 32%. Allaoui
et al. (2018) investigated mortarless joint using DIC tech-
nique. The mechanical behavior of dry joints was found to
be strongly heterogeneous and nonlinear because of rough-
ness and non-planarity of the brick faces. Sun (2018) studied
the failure behavior of the surrounding rock of deep buried
soft tunnel using DIC and observed that the horizontal stress
and excavation footage had huge influences on the failure
behavior. Sinha et al. (2020) observed strong similarity in
detecting the growth of micro-cracks and the deformation be-
havior of granite specimen both in numerical modelling and
2D DIC technique. Moazzami (2019) utilized the DIC tech-
nique to observe the geometry and size of specimen as well as
various modes of the fracture process zone and observed that
with increase in size, the discrepancy between lengths of
fracture process zones reduces. Miao et al. (2019) used the
2D DIC to find out the fracture process, associated zones, size,
and critical opening displacements. The influence of high tem-
peratures up to 800 °C on fracture characteristics was well
studied with 2D DIC.
Materials and methods
In this investigation, coal specimens from 100-m depth were
considered for evaluation. Coal specimens were collected
from a nearby active mine that belongs to Talcher coal field:
Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, a state-owned organization.
Talcher coal field, belonging to Gondwana formation, is situ-
ated at latitude 20° 55′ 00″ to 21° 00′ 00″ and longitude 85°
05′ 00″ and 85° 10′ 00″ (Fig. 1). The coal blocks, free from
aberrations and structurally intact at 100-m depth, were col-
lected from freshly exposed working faces without any signif-
icant geological weaknesses. The blocks were put in sealed
containers and transported to laboratory with care. The
physico-mechanical properties of the specimen were deter-
mined and the average values of the three experiments for
each parameter are reported here. The average values of den-
sity, compressive strength, and Young’s modulus were 1.231
gm/cc, 26.57 MPa and 1.57 GPa, respectively. DIC performs
best when images are taken from flat surfaces. So, cube coal
specimens were prepared from coal blocks that also confirmed
to the shape and nature of the underground coal pillar. This
confirms favorably to that reported elsewhere (Smrkić et al.
2018). Coal specimen for testing was carefully chosen to
avoid any presence of inherent weaknesses. Coal is very frag-
ile and often it is very difficult to extract specimens through
coring machines. So, the coal specimens (Fig. 2) of 4 × 4 × 4
cm3 were hand prepared with the help of a cutting tool, i.e.,
handsaw, and each face of the coal specimen was hand
polished to achieve even and smooth finish. This size
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060
Fig. 1 Location map of Talcher coal field
eliminated influence of variables like bedding planes and oth-
er weaknesses.
Speckle pattern generation
The deformation in the specimen under loading condition was
found out by determining the pixel positions with respect to its
initial. In this investigation, the speckle pattern was typically
randomly generated. They were numerically generated using a
speckle diameter of 9 pixels random in nature in each subset
throughout the specimen. This pattern confirms to similar pro-
cess adopted elsewhere (Lecompte et al. 2006) and is suitable
for correlation purpose.
The numerically generated pattern was transferred onto the
specimen by silk-printing method (Alberto Gilli 2007). This
method dealt with transferring ink through a mesh screen to
create a designed pattern on the specimen with the use of light
and heat. The pattern was first printed on a transparent acetate
film to create the stencil. Then, a suitable mesh screen was
coated with a layer of light-reactive emulsion, which gets
Fig. 2 Hand-prepared cube coal
samples
Page 3 of 16 1060
hardened when developed under bright light. The acetate sheet
carrying the design was laid onto the emulsion-coated screen
that was exposed to a very bright light source. The areas which
were out of pattern after being exposed for a set time were
hardened. The unhardened emulsion was carefully rinsed
away to make a clear imprint of the pattern on the screen.
The specimen was then brought under the screen and ink
was added on the top of the screen. The ink was pressed which
created the designed pattern on the specimen that was further
dried to get a smooth finish (Fig. 3).
Experimental setup
The experimental setup of DIC consists of a high-speed cam-
era, proper lighting system, loading unit, and a data acquisi-
tion and analysis software, StrainMaster, as detailed below
(Fig. 4).
(i) High-speed camera: LaVision Imager E-lite of 2456-
pixel × 2058 pixel with Sony ICX625 sensor, pixel size
1060 Page 4 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

Fig. 3 Speckle-patterned coal

samples

3.45 μm × 3.45 μm, spectral range 400–850 nm, max.
frame rate 12.2 fps, exposure time 100 μs to 80 ms
(ii) Lighting system: two sets of LED panel 800 Lumen each
(iii) Loading unit: Instron Universal Testing Machine
(Make: model 8861)
(iv) Software StrainMaster: it is used for optical analysis of
deformation measurement. The software acquires and
analyzes images that typically adopt Square Method
and Fast Fourier transform algorithms.

Fig. 4 a DIC experimental setup.

b Experimental setup for strain
measurement using strain gauge
Loading Unit

Acquisition Unit

Coal specim
men

Lighting System

StrainMaster Controller
S

StrainMasterr

a DIC Experimental Setup

Load Frame

Coal specimen with strain gauges

Strain Indicator

b Experimental setup for strain measurement using Strain gauge

Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060 Page 5 of 16 1060

Strain gauge used in deformation measurement is very pop- depth of focus of the system which evaluated the intrinsic
ular because of cost efficiency and easy availability, but it also and extrinsic parameters of the camera. The intrinsic parame-
has handling issues on uneven surfaces. In this investigation, ters are the ones that are internal and related to the digitization
the deformation measurement used four strain gauges: two for setup such as focal length, optical center, and skew coeffi-
lateral and two for longitudinal of 10-mm length and 5-mm cient, and the extrinsic parameters are the ones transforming
width with 350.8 ± 0.1 Ω resistance (Make: NICTECH, between the camera and external world. It is an important step
India). As the coal has porous surface, uneven and rough in where the image is expected to have distortions due to projec-
nature, the gauge bonding becomes difficult and special care tion that can be corrected using appropriate calibration tech-
must be taken to fill the voids and seal the surface with a nique. The scaling factor as obtained from this exercise is
suitable pre-coating before the bonding to achieve better con- between 28.32 pixel/mm and 30.51 pixel/mm.
tact area and hence improved gauge efficiency. The coal spec-
imen was cleaned with a soft bristled brush to remove any
loose particles. A CSM degreaser was used to remove any oils Strain measurement in DIC
or greases from the specimen. The specimen was then treated
thoroughly with M-Prep conditioner to enhance the cleaning The strain measurement in DIC is done tracking a set of pixels
process of the surface of coal. M-Prep conditioner (Make: called subsets in reference image to all the deformed images
Vishay Precision Group, India) is a mild acidic solution. The and finding correlation between them. There exist relation-
acidic surface due to M-Prep conditioner application was then ships between subset of the reference and deformed images
neutralized for any possible chemical reaction with M-Prep as below (Hassan 2019) :
Neutralizer 5A and the surface was air dried. The adhesive 8h
 i h
0 0 i9
and void filler M-bond AE 10, was then applied on the < f xi ; y j − f m  g xi ; y j −g m =
C ZNCC ¼ ∑M
i¼−M ∑ j¼−M
M
cleaned surface to achieve flawless gauge-bonding. After the : Δ f Δg ;
adhesive was cured, the surface was abraded very carefully
until the base material, i.e., coal surface, was exposed. Then, ð1Þ
strain gauges were fixed using an adhesive M-bond AE 200 in 2

0 0 32
f xi ; y j −f m g xi ; y j −g m
the selected area on the specimen. Proper care was taken in C ZNSSD ¼ ∑M ∑M 4 − 5
installing the strain gauge on the coal specimen. Two sets of
i¼−M j¼−M
△f △g
strain gauges—one for axial and another for lateral deforma-
ð2Þ
tion measurement—were attached to each side of the speci-
men. The specimen was allowed to cure for 24 h to ensure where CZNCC is zero normalized cross-correlation, CZNSSD is
proper installation before experimentation. zero normalized sum of squared differences correlation, f is
the intensity level of gray pixel in the reference image, g is the
intensity level of gray pixel in the deformed image, (x, y ) is
Calibration
the horizontal and vertical location of the pixel on the image
and (2 + 1) is the size of the subset with point (pixel) of
The DIC calibration process was carried out prior to acquisi-
interest at location (0, 0), which is the center of the subset. fm,
tion of images to determine and correct perspective distortions
gm, Δf, and Δg are defined as follows:
as well as define the scaled units of images (e.g., millimeter
scaling) (LaVision and LaVision 2013). The exercise was 1

carried out using the calibration plates (Fig. 5). The plates fm ¼ ∑M ∑M f x i ; y j
2 i¼−M j¼−M
ð3Þ
ð2M þ 1Þ
were kept at different positions and orientations within the

Fig. 5 Calibration plates

1060 Page 6 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

1
0 
0
gm ¼ 2
∑M
i¼−M ∑ j¼−M g xi ; y j
M
ð4Þ
ð2M þ 1Þ
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h
 i 2
Δf ¼ i¼−M ∑ j¼−M f xi ; y j −f m
∑M M
ð5Þ
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h
 i 2
Δg ¼ ∑M 0 0
i¼−M ∑ j¼−M g xi ; y j −g m ð6Þ
M

The maximum value of correlation coefficient is found out

when the intensity distribution inside the subset aligns with
that of the subset in the deformed image. Therefore, the dis-
placements are identified by the positions where the correla-
tion coefficient is maximum. The displacement due to Fig. 6 Reference image
subpixel resolution is achieved by considering gray level in-
terpolation followed by subset matching and applying suitable LVDT unit is attached to the bottom platen of the loading unit
subpixel registration algorithm. Subsequently, the strain is that holds the coal specimen and exhibits vertical movement of
calculated by differentiating the displacements along the ob- bottom platen during loading. Continuous images were taken
ject surface. But the generated strain will be erroneous due to during experiments at 3 Hz until failure occurred. Those images
the obtained experimental displacement errors. The least were analyzed for deformation measurement in StrainMaster
square method is approximated to find the strain reducing code. The digital images were captured at a frequency of
the effect of measurement error. The strains are found out by 3 Hz that synchronizes well with the machine data. Images
differentiating the approximated function. The displacements were continuously captured correlating the axial load with the
are expressed as a plane surface assuming uniform strain instant image. The sample images of reference and deformed
which can be represented as specimens are given in Figs. 6 and 7. It is difficult to take
ux ¼ ax x þ bx y þ c x ð7Þ images of surfaces with strain gauge mounted on four sides of
sample. Hence coal samples were measured in two different
uy ¼ ay x þ by y þ c y : ð8Þ sets—one with LVDT and strain gauges, and another with
LVDT and DIC. The rate of loading was kept constant for all
The strains can be expressed as (Yoneyama 2016)
the coal samples for effective comparison. As the coal speci-
∂ux mens were prepared from the same coal block that is structur-
εx ¼ ¼ ax ð9Þ
∂x ally and mineralogically intact, hence, their deformation behav-
∂uy ior can be compared for all the three approaches.
εy ¼ ¼ by ð10Þ
∂y
Effect of subset variation
∂uy ∂ux
γ xy ¼ þ ¼ ayþ bx : ð11Þ
∂x ∂y The DIC analysis uses subsets to divide an entire image into
smaller sections and finding correlation between them in ref-
where ux, uy are displacements and εx, εy are obtained strains
erence as well as deformed images. The size of the subset is
in x and y directions.

Results and discussion

Experimentation

The prepared coal specimens were placed between two square

smooth finished platens of same size to reduce friction between
the two surfaces. The objective of the investigation was to
predict the deformation of coal specimens under loading con-
dition. So, the load was applied to have a uniform axial defor-
mation, i.e., 0.005 mm/s. The axial convergence of machine
platens was recorded through linear variable differential trans-
former (LVDT) at 3 Hz with a least count of 0.02 kN. The Fig. 7 Deformed image
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060 Page 7 of 16 1060

Table 1 DIC processing parameters s ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi


0 deyy 2 0
Variable Value eyy ¼ :V ð13Þ
dV
Subset size 29–129 with 10-pixel increment s ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
  
Step size 8 0 0 dexy 2 0 dexy 2 0
exy ¼ eyx ¼ :U þ :V ð14Þ
Shape function 2nd order dU dV
Scale factor 29.76 pixels/mm
Interpolation function Bi-cubic spline interpolation where exx′, eyy′, exy′, and eyx′ are uncertainties in axial, lateral,
Correlation criterion Relative to the first and shear directions and U’ and V’ are the displacements in x
Strain calculation Least square method and y directions.
The strain uncertainties in x and y directions were calculat-
ed for subset sizes 29 × 29 to 129 × 129 pixels with an incre-
important to achieve a reliable correlation analysis. The use of ment of 10 pixels.
larger subset helps to distinct the intensity patterns contained It is observed that as the subset size increases, uncer-
in each subset from other subsets whereas use of a smaller tainties in the both directions (x and y) exhibit sharply
subset can be readily approximated with a shape function. decreasing trend but the rate of decrease is insignificant
So, there is a tradeoff between selecting an optimal subset beyond the subset size 99 × 99 (Fig. 8a). The gradient
size. In this investigation, subset sizes varying from 29 × 29 change in 29 × 29 subset for x and y directions was 4%
pixels to 129 × 129 pixels with an increment of 10 pixels were and 5%, respectively, whereas for 99 × 99, it was 45% and
evaluated for DIC analysis and suitable subset size for the 60%, respectively. The gradient change in 99 × 99 subset is
generated speckle pattern has been found out. The DIC pro- adequate to include the distinct intensity changes and
cessing parameters that are used in this subset optimization are makes it different from other subsets for the generated
given in Table 1. speckle pattern. Hence, the investigations were continued
The uncertainty of any variable is found out by taking taking subset size as 99 × 99 pixels. The DIC data should
partial derivative of it with respect to all other variables. The be with minimum strain noise (SN) and better spatial res-
overall uncertainty is found out by taking the square root of olution (SR). Smaller step sizes yield more DIC data points
the sum of the squares of the partial derivatives and multiply- leading to higher spatial resolution (Carter et al. 2015). In
ing with the uncertainty of that variable. The derived strain this investigation, the strain noise was calculated with
uncertainties are given in Eqs. 12, 13, and 14 (Farrance and varying step sizes, i.e., 3, 8, and 15. (Table 2). It was
Frenkel 2012). observed that the strain noise decreased (Fig. 8b) and res-
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi olution got enhanced with increase in step sizes (Fig. 9).
0 dexx 2 0 Hence, the strain calculation was done considering a step
exx ¼ :U ð12Þ
dU size of 8 pixels to have reasonable reliability.

a Illustration of subset size versus uncertainties b Variation of Strain noise with step
Fig. 8 a Illustration of subset size versus uncertainties. b Variation of strain noise with step size
1060 Page 8 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

Table 2 Noise in the strain data varying step sizes
Subset size (pixels) Step size (pixels) Strain noise (%)
99 3 0.1542
99 8 0.0843
99 15 0.0571
Strain calculation
The strain analysis has been performed on sequences of de-
formed images recorded during the compressive test using
DIC approach. The deformed images were compared with
respect to first image, i.e., reference image to calculate the
displacement and corresponding strain. Least square method
was adopted to analyze as it optimizes the time and accuracy
compared to any other method (Pan et al. 2009a, 2009b). The
longitudinal and lateral displacements were calculated from
the change of pixel positions in x and y directions in deformed
images with respect to that of reference image. The corre-
sponding load values were determined from the load cell.
The longitudinal and lateral strain plots of the above deformed
sample are given in Figs. 10 and 11.
It was observed that the trend obtained by DIC image anal-
ysis of coal specimen exhibited pre-failure stress-strain behav-
ior which was similar to that obtained by LVDT and strain
gauges. The longitudinal strain at peak failure load varied
from 0.98 to 1.5% for 4 no. of coal samples with an average
value of 1.24%. Similarly, lateral strain values varied from
0.24 to 0.54% with an average value of 0.37%. However,
the longitudinal and lateral strain values produced by strain
gauges were 1.02 and 0.614%. The longitudinal strain by
LVDT was from 1.22 to 1.86% with an average value of
1.51%. The average peak load sustained by samples for DIC
approach was 19 MPa and the corresponding value with strain
gauge specimen was 17 MPa (Fig. 12).
The aim of the investigation was to evaluate the efficiency
of DIC. As the stress-strain values obtained from image anal-
ysis are very close with a standard deviation of 0.23, their
average data have been considered for further analysis. The
DIC results have been evaluated with that of strain gauge and
LVDT (Fig. 13). It is observed that the strain values exhibited
by LVDT were maximum, DIC were minimum, and the strain

Step size =3; SN=0.1542; SR= High Step size=8; SN= 0.0843; SR= Medium

Step size=15; SN= 0.0571; SR=Low

Fig. 9 Spatial resolution with increase in step size
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060
a Coal Sample 1
c Coal Sample 3
Fig. 10 Exx of the deformed images of coal samples. a Coal sample 1. b Coal sample 2. c Coal sample 3. d Coal sample 4
gauge were in between. The longitudinal and lateral strains
obtained from various sources are given in Table 3.
DIC, a non-contact-based approach, was used to find the
deformation behavior of coal specimen. The average modulus
value by DIC was 6.5 GPa in the beginning at 0.05% strain
that reduced to 1.1 GPa with maximum 0.5% at failure.
Corresponding data for LVDT are 5.5 GPa at 0.075% strain
that reduced to 0.78 GPa at 0.75% strain at failure. Similarly,
strain gauge produced 5.8-GPa modulus at 0.8% strain that
reduced to 1.25 GPa at 1.05% strain at failure. The data show
that the stress-strain curve obtained from DIC analysis exhib-
ited strain hardening behavior. The other two LVDT and
strain gauge data represent similar behavioral trend but with
lower modulus values and higher strains. Hence, it is conclud-
ed that DIC best reflect behavior of bedded coal with higher
accuracy (Fig. 14).
The typical nature of the pixel movement would follow the
same trend for an isotropic and homogeneous material. Coal
samples are heterogeneous, and hence, the nature of pixel
movement would not follow the same path. However, as the
specimens selected belong to same block, the pixel movement
for all the compressive tests is comparable. The variation of
pixel positions of a speckle with increase in the number of
images starting from reference image to the deformed image
Page 9 of 16 1060
b Coal Sample 2
d Coal Sample 4
was analyzed (Fig. 15). The undeformed pixel P with location
coordinate (816,599) changed from P1 (536,482) to P4
(819,588) in images 20 and 120, respectively, with increase
in loading (Fig. 15b). The position of the deformed subset was
determined from the peak position of the distribution of cor-
relation coefficient. The deformation of P was then calculated
by subtracting the position of deformed subset from the refer-
ence subset.
Strain field generation
The stress-strain relation of coal specimens is given in Fig.
16a. The figure explains the relation in terms of stress, axial
strain, and lateral strain. The fracture damage of rock has
been associated with threshold stresses such as crack closer
(σcc), crack initiation (σci), crack damage (σcd), and peak
stress (σpeak) in the pre-peak region and were found out
from the typical stress-strain curve. The following relations
were used to find out the stresses related to fracture damage
(Tang et al. 2018)
∈vol ¼ ∈1 þ ∈2 þ ∈3 ¼ ∈1 þ 2∈2 ð15Þ
1−2μ
∈vol e ¼ σ ð16Þ
E
1060 Page 10 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

a Coal Sample 1 b Coal Sample 2

c Coal Sample 3 d Coal Sample 4

Fig. 11 Eyy of the deformed images of coal samples. a Coal sample 1. b Coal sample 2. c Coal sample 3. d Coal sample 4

Fig. 12 Longitudinal and lateral

strains obtained from DIC
analysis
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060 Page 11 of 16 1060

Table 3 Strains obtained from

various sources Process/sample ID Maximum longitudinal Average (%) Maximum Average (%)
strain (%) lateral strain (%)

DIC 1 1.35 1.24 − 0.39 − 0.37

DIC 2 1.13 − 0.31
DIC 3 0.98 − 0.54
DIC 4 1.5 − 0.24
LVDT 1 1.62 1.51
LVDT 2 1.39
LVDT 3 1.20
LVDT 4 1.86
Strain gauge 1.02 − 0.61

∈vol CI ¼ ∈vol −∈vol e ð17Þ
where ∈vol is volumetric strain, ∈vol is elastic volumetric
e in longitudinal represent start of unstable crack, i.e., crack
strain, and ∈ vol CI is crack initiation volumetric strain.
∈1 and ∈2 are the axial strain and lateral strain calculated from
the DIC. It was observed that DIC was sensitive to small-scale
strain and captured the weakening of the specimen earlier
compared to LVDT and strain gauge by a range between 2
to 4% in the initial phase of loading. Hence, the strains gen-
erated from DIC were used to identify the threshold stresses
and various zones associated. The initial stage of the curve
explains the crack closure phenomena where the existing
micro-cracks of the specimen close by not disturbing its in-
tactness. As the stress magnitude increases beyond the crack
closure stress, the specimen starts to exhibit linear elastic char-
acteristics. The Young’s modulus (E) and Poisson’s ratio (v)
were extracted from the linear-elastic region. E and v were
calculated between 30–60% and 20–40%, respectively. The
difference between these correspond to the onset of inelastic
lateral and longitudinal strains during experimentation. The
inelastic linear behavior represents crack initiation and that
damage phase (Walton et al. 2015). The coal properties and
threshold stresses are shown in Table 4.
The location of threshold stresses in the stress-strain
curve is given in Fig. 16a. It was found that the crack-
initiation stress level (σci/σc) varied from 27 to 59% and
the crack damage stress level (σcd/σc) from 47 to 78% for
4 no. of coal samples. In this investigation, three coal spec-
imens with bedding plane orientation of 10° to horizontal
exhibited higher strength value than the specimen 4 with an
average bedding angle of 17.5°. In the coal sample 4, due to
the higher bedding plane angle with respect to horizontal,
crack initiation was quicker than the other 3 samples, i.e., at
0.27σpeak. The crack initiation stress was calculated from
the corresponding crack initiation volumetric strain (Eq.
17). The crack damage stress was taken where a sharp
change in tangent modulus was seen along with significant
change in volumetric strain (Fig. 17). In this investigation, it

Fig. 13 Comparison between

DIC, strain gauge, and LVDT
1060 Page 12 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

Table 4 The coal properties and threshold stresses of coal samples

Sample ID Test E (GPa) v σci (MPa) σcd(MPa) σci/ σcd/

σc σc

1 UC 1.20 0.18 11.99 16.00 0.59 0.78

2 UC 1.54 0.20 13.49 18.24 0.57 0.77
3 UC 1.50 0.19 4.33 8.50 0.31 0.51
4 UC 0.85 0.20 4.72 12.87 0.27 0.47

UC, uniaxial compression, E Young’s modulus, v Poisson’s ratio

Crack movement

The strains generated during the experiments are the ones

reflecting the crack movement in the specimen. Figure 18 de-
picts the strains generated in the coal specimens under uniaxial
compression at various stress levels such as crack closure,
Fig. 14 Average longitudinal strains of the specimens using DIC, strain crack initiation, crack damage, and peak stress. The coal spec-
gauge, and LVDT
imens started deforming gradually with increase in axial load
until the peak stress as clearly indicated in the color gradient.
was observed that the modulus values exhibited sharp de-
In the initial stage, with the increase in load, existing micro-
cline between 0.5 and 0.65% for three coal samples that
cracks were closed and at about an average of 43.72% of the
have less than 10° bedding plane to horizontal. The one with
peak, onset of crack initiation occurred (Fig. 18a, e, i, m).
bedding angle 17.5° showed the same at 1.48% (Fig. 16).
Distinctly visible cracks appeared on the specimen surface at
The crack initiation and crack damage were also determined
an average of 63.6% of peak load (Fig. 18b, f, j, n). This
out from stress—volumetric strain curve (Fig. 16b). The
phenomenon depicted that the micro-cracks were abundant
crack initiation threshold is observed where the linearity
in the specimen because of the depositional environment and
changes to nonlinearity and crack damage is at the reversal
the cracks were initiated at a stress below 50% of the peak
point (Xue et al. 2014). It was observed that the crack initi-
load, and sooner activated to unstable crack growth leading to
ation threshold exhibited by the samples were between
failure. The cracks generated closer to boundary, and travelled
5 MPa and 15 MPa and the respective values for crack dam-
from top to bottom almost parallel to axial loading, except for
age were from 9 to 16 MPa which confirmed to the threshold
the specimen that had steeper bedding plane. The specimen
values generated from stress-strain curve of DIC. The major
with steeper bedding plane exhibited multiple cracks close to
strain fields at crack initiation, crack damage, and peak for
boundary that propagated from the bottom to the top, parallel
coal specimens are reflected in Fig. 18.
to loading axis (Fig. 18p). The micro-cracks escalated to

Pixel
“P”

a Blue marker points out the speckle b Pixel positions of a speckle

to be tracked with images with image no.
Fig. 15 a Blue marker points out the speckle to be tracked with images. b Pixel positions of a speckle with image no.
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060
Fig. 16 a Different stages of
failure profile. b Stress versus
volumetric strain diagram
a Different stages of failure profile
b Stress versus Volumetric Strain Diagram
macro-cracks causing spalling because of the porosity and
heterogeneity involved in the specimens. However, the spec-
imens continued to offer resistance until the peak stress.
Yielding was achieved in the specimens with multiple cracks
before the peak stress (Fig. 18c, g, k, o). Finally, the stress
reached the peak point, cracks opened, and integrity was bro-
ken leading to eventual failure (Fig. 18d, h, i, p).
Conclusion
The stress-strain characteristics of coal specimens under uni-
axial compressive load have been investigated. The deforma-
tion behavior of coal specimens was studied using a non-
Page 13 of 16 1060
contact way of measurement, i.e., digital image correlation
(DIC), and evaluated with respect to that by conventional
methods such as strain gauge and LVDT. The following con-
clusions have been drawn from this study.
1. There exists an optimum size of subset that produces the
best result in image analysis. The uncertainties in the two
x and y directions decreased rapidly from 29 × 29 to 99 ×
99 subsets beyond which the rate is almost negligible.
Hence, for the generated speckle pattern, the subset size
99 × 99 was optimal.
2. The step size was chosen keeping a tradeoff between the
strain noise and spatial resolution. The strain noise was
calculated with varying step sizes of 3, 8, and 15 pixels
1060 Page 14 of 16 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060

Fig. 17 Identification of crack damage in coal samples

Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:1060
a Sample 1: =0.59 b =0.78
e Sample 2: =0.57 f =0.77
i Sample 3: =0.31 j =0.51
m Sample 4: =0.27 n =0.46
Fig. 18 Major strain fields obtained by specimens at various stages
out of which step size 8 pixel was selected having de-
creased strain noise with balanced spatial resolution.
3. DIC, strain gauge, and LVDT exhibited continuous defor-
mation results. However, the latter two failed to capture
the sample behavior until 2 to 4% strain. DIC was sensi-
tive to coal behavior in small-scale strain.
4. The average threshold stress levels of crack initiation and
crack damage in uniaxial compression were found to be
43.72% and 63.6%, respectively. This study was very
much helpful in understanding the progressive failure
mechanism of coal which is an important contribution
for the safety and stability in underground mines.
5. The behavior of bedded coal specimen was best captured
by DIC compared to that by strain gauge and LVDT.
6. Evaluation of coal specimens by DIC exhibits better re-
sults as compared to that by the mechanical convergence
or strain indicators. It is also more sensitive to deforma-
tion behavior at initial stages of weakening. The DIC ap-
proach can be carried out on coal pillars in real mine
situations that would monitor whole pillar behavior as
compared to the limited contact-based reading by other
contact-based approaches. DIC takes images and
Page 15 of 16 1060
c =0.87 d
g =0.90 h
k =0.86 l
o =0.76 p
determines the physical behavior. This approach can be
adopted from the line of depillaring or gob edge with
better image acquisition instruments. Remnant pillars are
expected to deform gradually under load during
depillaring operations. This would also extend better safe-
ty as physical contact is not required as compared to that
with convergence instruments. A detailed characterization
of DIC with varying load factors would be an important
tool in its usage in depillaring operation.
Acknowledgements The authors sincerely appreciate with gratefulness
the help and guidance received from Dr. S. Siva Prasad in our experimen-
tation. He is working as Scientist EII in CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur.
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