Displacement measurement using digital speckle multi-frequency harmonic wave correlation method

In the displacement measurement using digital speckle correlation method, significant measuring error due to the multi-peak nature of the correlation coefficient function is a critical issue as sometimes the secondary peak can be wrongly determined as the maximum instead of the highest peak. In the multi-frequency harmonic wave correlation method (MHCM) as proposed in this work, for speckle patterns before and after the displacement, correlation calculations were performed on corresponding sets of data matrices assembled by amplitudes/intensities obtained from harmonic waves with different frequencies. The calculated maximum correlation coefficients were compared with each other to locate the maximum in order to measure the displacement. Both ultrasonic speckle MHCM and laser speckle MHCM were applied to the displacement measurement respectively. Measured results indicated that MHCM effectively helps to ensure the correct determination of the maximum correlation coefficient, to avoid random errors caused by other factors and improves the measurement accuracy in the meanwhile.