Characterization and optimization of illumination vector for contouring surface form and feature using DSPI

Surface defect or damage is one of the critical factors leading to the failure of engineering materials and structures. The methodologies for the measurement of surface shape and feature or defect have been extensively explored and developed over the past few decades, including both contact and non-contact methods. Speckle pattern interferometry, as a non-contact optical method, has been demonstrated to effectively contour the surface shape through adjusting the illumination vector. However, few studies have been made to investigate the effect of the initial position of the illumination source as well as the source translation direction. In this paper, we report to carry out a study of measuring the surface form and feature using digital speckle pattern interferometry system via a slight translation of illumination source. Through theoretically analyzing the sensitivity factor along with the experimental validation, it is shown that the contouring fringe is more sensitive to the surface height with an off-axis illumination than the paraxial illumination. It is also found that translating the source along axial and lateral direction can be both used for the surface shape re-construction.