Proceedings Article | 30 November 1994
KEYWORDS: Moire patterns, Photography, Speckle, Clouds, Mechanics, Interferometry, Composites, Optics manufacturing, Inspection, Nondestructive evaluation
Many advances in optics theory and technology have been stimulated by the demands of engineering research. From another viewpoint, the science of optics unifies diverse important areas of experimental research. Fundamental problems in fluid mechanics, rock mechanics, biomechanics, fracture mechanics, materials science, manufacturing technology, nondestructive inspection, and glacier mechanics are being solved by methods of optical metrology. The development of expertise and facilities to have in hand the most appropriate of available techniques is a forbidding task, but it is necessary in order to solve problems in the most efficient way. This paper describes in elementary terms some examples of applications which are relatively uncommon, including biomechanical contouring, glacier strain and flow measurement, 3-dimensional fracture mechanics, and nondestructive inspection of composites. In each case, one or more techniques, some fashionable and some old-fashioned, were adapted, extended or combined to perform the necessary measurements. The rationales for choosing the methods to solve each problem are outlined. The techniques include electronic speckle, electronic shearography, moire interferometry, moire photography with optical filtering, differential moire contouring, Doppler velocimetry, and noncoherent-light speckle photography.
