Common Optical Configuration Research Articles

Evaluation of a novel compact shearography system with DOE configuration

The most common optical configuration used to produce the lateral shifted images, in a Shearography system, is the Modified Michelson interferometer, because of its simple configuration. Tests carried out in recent years have shown that the modified interferometer of Michelson is a device that presents good results in a laboratory environment, but still presents difficulties in the field. These difficulties were the main motivation for the development of a more robust system, able to operate in unstable environments. This paper presents a new shearography configuration based on Diffractive Optical Element (DOE). Different from the diffractive common-path setups found in literature, in the proposed configuration, the DOE is positioned between the image sensor and the objective lens and mounted on a flexible holder, which has an important function to promote the system's robustness. Another advantage of the proposed system is in respect to phase shifting, since it is insensitive to wavelength variations. The lateral movement of the DOE produces a phase shifting in the shearography system. Since the pitch of the diffractive grating used is about 60 times greater than the wavelength of a green laser, the DOE configuration becomes much more robust to external influences compared to the Michelson Interferometer configuration. This work also presents an evaluation of the proposed shearography system designed, and some comparative results regarding a classical shearography system.

Statistical Analysis of Velocity Measuring Systems Employing the Photon Correlation Technique

Velocities of fluid flows and solid objects can be measured by performing photon count correlations on laser light scattered from the measuring region, the most common optical configuration being the laser Doppler system. A statistical analysis for the counting process is presented for both the constant velocity case and for turbulent fluid flows with formulations for specific laser Doppler configurations. For turbulent flow, relationships are derived for the shape of the count correlation in terms of the mean velocity and rms turbulent intensity, taking into account the shape of the turbulence correlation curve. Experimental results recorded for both a constant velocity solid object and for an unseeded turbulent air flow in a wind tunnel are presented, and, in the latter case, comparisons are made with hot-wire measurements.