An Image-Based Piston Displacement Monitoring Framework for Compression Testing: A Feasibility Study Using Corrugated Board Specimens

This paper presents a feasibility study of an image-based system intended to track piston displacement during compression testing of corrugated board specimens. The framework integrates video-frame analysis with MATLAB-based image processing to generate piston displacement records and calculate estimates of piston velocity and acceleration throughout the recorded compression process. Piston motion is tracked frame by frame from digital video recordings and a pixel-to-distance calibration procedure converts the extracted pixel coordinates into physical displacement values in millimetres, without reliance on advanced optical instrumentation. Fourteen compression experiments were conducted on corrugated board specimens of varying geometric configurations to examine how specimen dimensions affect compression behaviour and peak force. Force and displacement data were analysed through least-squares fitting and preliminary empirical approximations of the geometry-force relationship were developed within the tested dimensional ranges. Within the tested configurations, taller specimens typically showed lower recorded maximum compression forces at a fixed width, whereas wider specimens generally displayed higher values at a fixed height. These preliminary associations do not isolate geometry effects from specimen variability or differences in loading rate. The results indicate that it is feasible to acquire piston displacement data via frame-by-frame reference-point tracking, utilizing a conventional digital camera alongside computational software. Visual observation of specimen deformation was conducted, although direct quantification was not achieved through tracking the reference point on the piston. The framework offers a simplified video-based method for tracking piston displacement, includes qualitative assessments of specimen behaviour, and has a narrower measurement scope than full-field optical methods.