Evaluation of image registration for measuring deformation fields in soft tissue mechanics

High-fidelity biomechanical models usually involve the mechanical characterisation of biological tissues using experimental methods based on optical measurements. In most experiments, strains are evaluated displacements a few markers and represents an average within region interest (ROI). Full-field measurements may improve description non-homogeneous materials such as soft tissues. The approach non-rigid image registration is proposed compared with standard digital correlation (DIC) set samples, including (i) complex heterogeneous deformations sub-pixel displacement, (ii) typical uniaxial tension test aorta, (iii) indentation skin. possibility to extend ROI whole sample exploitation natural tissue pattern main assets method whereas results show similar accuracy DIC when analysing deformations. Therefore, displacement strain fields measurement very promising characterise specimens irregular shapes and/or small dimensions, which features