Pulsed carrier out-of-plane speckle interferometry for transient vibration analysis

An out-of-plane pulsed electronic speckle pattern interferometer has been developed which incorporates novel Pockels-cell-based optics in the reference path. The generation of carrier fringes within the interferometer allows the quantitative analysis of each consecutive correlation fringe pattern, without the requirement for interactive interferometer optical phase manipulation. This hybrid interferometer is specifically designed for the non-contact whole-field analysis of transient vibration within plate structures and is demonstrated through the analysis of a poly(methyl methacrylate) polymer plate. Results are presented which detail a set of consecutive data fields describing the progress of a transient event through the plate, allowing discussion of the benefits and limitations of whole-field speckle techniques for comprehensive analysis of transient vibration.