The Exhibition of Experimental Mechanics is the premier UK exhibition for manufacturers and suppliers of strain measurement and stress analysis equipment and will take place in September 2026 as part of the 20th International Conference on advances in Experimental Mechanics which will take place between 8 - 10 September 2026, Swansea, UK.
The conference covers all areas of experimental solid mechanics and aims to draw together researchers and industrialists from a diverse range of sectors, including but not limited to Aerospace, Automotive, Rail, Biomedical, Construction, Power & Energy. Abstracts are welcome on any topic that falls within this broad scope.
Conference Highlights:
Measurements Lecture
Professor Michael Sutton, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, University of South Carolina, USA
'Recent Developments in Characterization of Advanced Material Response'
Global national conflicts have necessitated reductions in the time required to develop advanced material systems, resulting in a focus on development and application of sophisticated methods for characterization of advanced material responses. Fortunately, full-field measurement methods such as digital image correlation (DIC) have provided investigators with the opportunity to integrate measurement data with computational methods in unique ways. The presentation will focus on three recent studies.
The first study presents a novel method combining digital image correlation (DIC) full-field deformation measurements with the explicit dynamic finite element method (EFEM) to reconstruct the full field spatio-temporal stress field in dynamically loaded materials without requiring knowledge or input of material properties. Stress-strain data obtained using the reconstruction methodology with DIC measurements are found to accurately describe material response.
Since the EFEM requires DIC deformations and accelerations at locations in the specimen during loading, results are reported quantifying point-wise variability in the DIC-based motion measurements. Performing both theoretical analysis and specimen static and dynamic translations, velocity and acceleration uncertainties when using central difference temporal derivative formulae are shown to be 𝜎u ⋅ 𝐹𝑅 and 𝜎u ⋅ 𝐹𝑅2, respectively, where 𝜎u is the standard deviation in displacement and FR is the camera frame rate.
Finally, using an inverse form for the equations of equilibrium, a novel algorithm, IMPACT, for direct extraction of heterogenous material properties when using full-field DIC deformation measurements and a multilinear material property form has been developed for both 1D and 2D configurations. For a nominally 2D specimen geometry, material property results from the IMPACT method simulations are compared to independent estimates using the finite element method updating (FEMU) method.
Abstract submission deadline extended to 30 March 2026
Initial author notification from 15 April 2026
Early bird registration ends 31 May 2026
