In-plane and out-of-plane displacement measurement by ultrasonic speckle correlation method (USCM)

When an object moves, ultrasonic speckles backscattered from its surface will follow the object to move. From the Kirchhoff diffraction theory and the correlation principles of random signals, the necessary condition for keeping the correlativity between the speckle fields before and after the objective displacement was deduced. Based on this condition, the formulas for the relationship between the speckle displacement and the objective displacement were obtained. Practical measurement was performed. Ultrasonic digital speckle correlation method was used to measure the in-plane displacement and out-of-plane displacement of an object. The displacements of the objective surface were evaluated after the displacements of the speckles were determined.This method can be also used to measure the displacements of an inner objective surface. A mountain-climbing search method was proposed, which enabled us to find the maximum correlation coefficient in the correlation operation quickly and efficiently. The experimental results showed good agreement with the theoretical predictions.