The development of full field interferometric methods for fluid velocimetry

The development of full field interferometry as a velocimetry technique in experimental fluid mechanics from its inception in 1977 to the present is discussed. In 1977, holographic interferometry (HI) was applied for the first time to measure the velocity field in a liquid flow. It was not until 1998 that the first application to a gaseous flow was reported. The only kind of speckle interferometry that has been applied to measure velocity fields so far is digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI). It was in 1999 that DSPI was demonstrated both in a liquid and a gaseous flow.