Comparison of phase recovery methods in spiral speckle pattern interferometry correlation fringes

Spiral interferometry can be used as a solution to the problem of sign ambiguity presented in the conventional speckle pattern interferometric technique when the optical phase needs to be reconstructed from a single closed fringe system. Depressions and elevations of the topography corresponding to the object deformation are distinguished by the direction of rotation of the local spiral fringe pattern. In this work, we implement and compare several methods for optical phase reconstruction by analyzing a single image composed of spiral speckle pattern interferometry correlation fringes. The implemented methods are based on contour line demodulation, center line demodulation, Spiral Phase Quadrature Transform and the 2D Riesz transform with multivector structure. Contour line and center line demodulation approaches are exclusively dedicated to images containing a fringe system with spiral structure. The others are based on the 2D Riesz transform, these being well known approaches in conventional interferometry. We examine simulated experiments and analyze some of the emerging drawbacks for solving the phase reconstruction problem by using different mean values of speckle size and background noise levels. We also discuss several numerical procedures that may well improve the efficiency and robustness of the presented numerical implementations. The performance of the implemented demodulation methods is evaluated by using a universal image quality index and therefore a quantitative comparison is also presented.     

Continual deformation analysis with scanning phase method and time sequence phase method in temporal speckle pattern interferometry

If a laser beam illuminates a continual deformation object surface, it will lead to a temporal speckle pattern on the observation plane. Recording this time-dependent speckle pattern the deformation of the surface of an object can be obtained. Two methods, scanning phase method (SPM) and time sequence phase method (TSPM), have been introduced for measuring the displacement caused by the deformation in temporal speckle pattern interferometry (TSPI). Their principle is that by capturing a series of speckle interference patterns related to the object deformations, the fluctuations in the intensity of the interference patterns can be obtained. Through scanning these fluctuations and estimating both the average intensity and modulation of the temporal speckle interference patterns, the phase maps for whole-field displacements are calculated. In this way one is capable of quantitatively measuring continual displacements simply using a conventional electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) system without phase shifting or a carrier. The elaboration on the new methods is given in this paper and experiments are performed to demonstrate their performance with a conventional ESPI system.     

Deformation field induced by spherical indentation: numerical analysis and experimental measurement by speckle interferometry

The present paper describes an experimental procedure for the measurement of the displacement field around a spherical indentation. The measurements were performed by a speckle interferometer designed for the detection on small areas of one or more oblique components of displacement; the indentations were made by a standard durometer used for metals.The experiments were carried out on a hardened and tempered steel, previously characterized by a standard tensile test; the results are in accordance with the numerical results obtained by an elasto-plastic FEM analysis.     

Speckle photography combined with speckle interferometry

By combining speckle interferometry (SI) measurements with speckle photography, the fringe visibility can be kept high despite the presence of a large bulk or rotating motion of the object. This combined technique improves the usability and measuring range of both pulsed and phase-stepped SI-methods. This paper reviews the theory of fringe formation in SI and shows some recent applications of this combined technique.     

Measurement of sub-surface delaminations in carbon fibre composites using high-speed phase-shifted speckle interferometry and temporal phase unwrapping

A high-speed phase-shifted speckle interferometer has been developed recently for studying dynamic events. Speckle interferograms are continuously recorded by a CCD camera operating at 1 kHz with temporal phase shifting carried out by a Pockels cell running at the same frequency. Temporal phase unwrapping through sequences of more than 1000 frames allows the determination of time-varying absolute displacement maps. This paper presents the application of this speckle interferometry system to the detection and measurement of sub-surface delamination defects in carbon fibre specimens. The influence of re-referencing the temporal phase unwrapping algorithm after different time intervals is analysed to reduce the random phase errors produced by speckle decorrelation and vibration. The performance of several phase-shifting algorithms to minimize the influence of the vibration noise caused by the vacuum pump used to load the specimen is also investigated.     

CMOS vs. CCD sensors in speckle interferometry

In the field of interferometric metrology the use of high resolution CCD sensors with 1024×1024 to 2048×2048 pixels is predominant. Due to special features (e.g. random pixel access, characteristic curve) CMOS sensors with similar resolution can be an interesting alternative. We compare some characteristics of both sensor types that are important for interferometry and demonstrate two exemplary applications that are only possible by using CMOS cameras.     

A comparative study of phase-shifting algorithms in digital speckle pattern interferometry

Digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) is a tool for making qualitative as well as quantitative measurements of deformation of objects. Phase-shifting algorithms in DSPI are useful for extracting quantitative deformation data from the system. Comparative studies of the different phase-shifting algorithms in DSPI for object deformation measurement are presented. Static and quasi-dynamic deformation of the object can be measured using these algorithms. Error compensating five-step phase-shifting method is used for the algorithms.     

A microprism array as shearing device for speckle shearing interferometry

In most speckle shearing interferometers image shearing is performed by means of a Michelson interferometer or by means of a wedge prism covering half of the aperture of the camera objective. We present a speckle shearing interferometer which utilizes a microprism array for this purpose. It is placed between the test specimen and the camera. In comparision with a wedge prism it exhibits some advantages: it needs no exact alignment, it works with any camera lens, the shearing distance and direction of shearing can be easily changed by changing position (resp. angular orientation) of the element. Phase stepping for computer evaluation of the speckle shearing interferograms is performed by the translation of the shearing element. A special translation stage was developed. Experimental results are presented. The interferometer is suited for microcomponent and microsystem testing.     

Development of Matlab filtering techniques in digital speckle pattern interferometry

In interferometric fringe pattern analysis, specular and speckle fringe patterns are the two main divisions. While specular fringes are characterized by quality fringes, speckle (that obtains due to the diffuse scattering of the coherent radiation from an optically rough surface) fringe patterns are characterized by noisy fringes. This paper concentrates on this aspect and the Matlab based filtering methods to improve the quality of speckle fringe patterns by developing the appropriate software. Further, the newly developed software “Macurv” will be presented which can give the second order derivative (curvature) fringe information. A software with several functions is written using Matlab. The objective of the software is to provide a more effective way for the post-processing of speckle interferometric fringes. The algorithm and functions of the developed software “Macurv” will be explained.     

Quantitative phase retrieval in dynamic laser speckle interferometry

The rapid progress of modern manufacturing and inspection technologies has posed stringent requirements on optical techniques for vibration characterization and dynamic testing. Due to its simplicity, accuracy and whole-field characters, laser speckle interferometry has served as one of the major techniques for dynamic measurement. In this paper, a two-step phase shifting method is developed for quantitative speckle phase measurement, which helps to eliminate the specklegrams needed for phase evaluation and facilitate dynamic measurement. Unlike previously reported two-step methods using fringe patterns with known phase shift of π/2, a small unknown phase shift is employed instead in the proposed method, which eliminates the need for phase shifting devices. Further investigation shows that small phase shifts are preferable over large phase shifts in this method. Shearographic experiments conducted have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed technique.     

Real-time visualisation of deformation fields using speckle interferometry and temporal phase unwrapping

A real-time system for analysing data from speckle interferometers, and speckle shearing interferometers, has been developed. Interferograms are continuously recorded by a digital camera at a rate of 60 frames s⁻¹ with temporal phase shifting carried out at the same rate. The images are analysed using a pipeline image processor. With a standard 4-frame phase-shifting algorithm (phase steps of π/2), wrapped phase maps are calculated and displayed at 15 frames s⁻¹. These are unwrapped using a temporal phase unwrapping algorithm to provide a real-time colour-coded display of the relevant displacement component. Each camera pixel (or cluster of pixels) behaves in effect as an independent displacement sensor. The reference speckle interferogram is updated automatically at regular user-defined intervals, allowing arbitrarily large deformations to be measured and errors due to speckle decorrelation to be minimised. The system has been applied to the problem of detecting sub-surface delamination cracks in carbon fibre composite panels.     

Speckle interferometry for measurement of continuous deformations

Improvements of a method for measurement of continuous displacements and deformations with digital phase shifting speckle pattern interferometry are presented. The method is based on an algorithm that, with the knowledge of the initial phase, only needs one image at a time to evaluate continuos phase changes due to object deformations. In the improved method, the initial random phase of the speckle pattern is evaluated using a number of phase-shifted images before the deformation under study. This is used for increasing the accuracy of the initial phase estimation and reducing influences from image noise and other measurement disturbances. The phase-shifted speckle patterns are used as references for comparison with the speckle patterns of the deformed object, thereby increasing the reliability and accuracy of the phase estimations of the deformed patterns. The technique can be used for measuring deformations such as transients and other dynamic events, heat expansion as well as other phenomena where it is difficult to accomplish phase shifting during deformation.     

Low-cost speckle interferometry for measuring 3D deformation fields: Hardware and software

In the present paper the authors propose a portable and low-cost speckle interferometer for evaluating 3D deformation fields. The interferometer was designed and realized with the aim of carrying out measurements on small areas, hence it can be used to approach problems characterized by displacement field with highly localized gradients, such as the strain relief occurring in residual stress evaluation or the displacements which arise around notches or crack tips. The costs of the experimental equipment were reduced by employing laser diodes as light sources, a PZT actuator designed and calibrated by the authors and a control electronics realized on purpose. Moreover the configuration which was adopted allows further saving on optical components. The experimental results reported at the end of the paper, and obtained by a specimen subjected to 3D rigid body motions, show a high repeatability and accuracy. Furthermore the experimental results have shown that the geometry of the optical setup implies the variation of the sensitivity vectors on the inspected area, but this effect can be evaluated (analytically and/or experimentally) and taken into account in order to increase the accuracy of the measurements.     

A new speckle carrier method in speckle interferometry

A new speckle carrier technique is presented, which can solve the problem in one-beam laser speckle interferometry, that the direction of the displacement vector is ambiguously determined when the point-wise method is used. The method is very easy and convenient and the results are good. Some discussion about the relationship between the carrier frequency and the displacements is given.     

Low-frequency harmonic vibration analysis with temporal speckle pattern interferometry

In this paper, the time sequence phase method (TSPM) has been applied to measure the displacement caused by low-frequency vibration in temporal speckle pattern interferometry (TSPI). The principle is that by capturing the temporal speckle patterns related to the object vibration, the whole-field displacement responses (amplitude and phase) of the vibrating object can be calculated through scanning these fluctuations. Thus, quantitative measurement can be carried out using a conventional ESPI system without a camera synchronized to the object vibration or a phase shifting system. The elaboration on the method is given and experimental results are presented.     

时间序列散斑干涉技术研究及应用

当用相干激光照射在一个连续位移或变形的漫射物体表面时,在与参考光形成干涉的接收面上即产生一随时间变化的散斑干涉场通过对这一干涉场的时间域进行分析,可实现时变位移场的定量检测本文介绍了基本时间序列散斑干涉场的扫描相位方法和时间序列相位法的相位函数解调原理,探讨了它们的计量特性,并将其用于火箭固体燃料性能的检测.     

Influence of in-plane displacement and strain components on slope fringe distributions in double-aperture speckle wedge-shearing interferometry

The influence of in-plane displacement and strain components on slope (first-order derivative of out-of-plane displacement component) fringe distributions in double-aperture speckle wedge-shearing interferometry is discussed in detail. The research results show that only the in-plane displacement component parallel to the centre line of double apertures has an influence on the slope fringe distributions. It is also shown that the in-plane strain components have no influence on the slope fringe distributions when utilising normal illumination and an axisymmetric system. A theoretical analysis and an experimental demonstration are given. The experimental results are in good agreement with the quantitative analysis.