Optimal re-referencing rate for in-plane dynamic speckle interferometry

We investigate experimentally the optimal rate at which the reference speckle pattern should be updated when dynamic speckle interferometry is used to measure transient in-plane displacement fields. Images are captured with a high-speed camera and phase shifting and phase unwrapping are done temporally. For a wide range of in-plane velocities, up to a maximum of 40% of the Nyquist limit, the random errors in the calculated displacement field are minimized by updating the reference speckle pattern after a speckle displacement of 1/10 of the pixel spacing. The technique is applied to measurements of microscale deformation fields within an adhesive joint in a carbon-fiber epoxy composite.