Speckle pattern characterisation for high resolution digital image correlation

Digital image correlation. (DIC) is an optical technique for full field deformation measurement. The spatial resolution and precision of the measurements are limited by the number of pixels within the image. The use of magnifying optics provides greater spatial resolution images, enabling smaller displacements to be observed with greater accuracy. Increasing the magnification of an image significantly changes the appearance of the non-periodic, stochastic speckle pattern which provides the grey scale contrast necessary for the image correlation method. In the paper a methodology is developed to evaluate the properties of different speckle pattern types under a range of resolutions up to 705 pixel / mm. Numerical deformation of the patterns is also undertaken to evaluate how the changes in the pattern properties affect the accuracy of the DIC measurements.