Strain measurement by optical correlation

Abstract

The application of optical correlation measurements to evaluating elastic strain and plastic strain in metals is discussed in this paper. A selected area of the metal surface is illuminated by coherent light. The optical correlation intensity is then measured by transmitting light scattered from the surface through a holographic filter, in which information about the topography of the surface at an earlier time is stored. Changes in surface topography arising from rigid-body displacement, elastic strain, or plastic strain, respectively, cause corresponding changes in optical correlation intensity. Correlation changes arising from surface translation or rotation can be compensated for. An analysis of the process of holographic reconstruction from an elastically strained surface gives good agreement with the experimental results. The correlation technique is sensitive to elastic strains of the order of 10⁻⁵ and to monotonic plastic strains of the order of 10⁻⁴; the change in correlation intensity is essentially linear with increasing plastic strain, up to a maximum strain of about 10⁻³.