Opto-mechanical modelling and experimental approach to the measurement of aerospace materials using shearography and thermal loading

This paper is concerned with the modelling of the complete opto-mechanical measurement system, including shearography instrument, loading technique and the response of the object under test and the comparison of the simulation results with experimental results. To show the applicability of this technique, the response of an aluminium flat plate sample under thermal load was analysed. First a finite element model of the plate was generated, using an experimentally measured temperature profile. The strain and displacement values obtained from the finite element model were used to simulate the phase-map in the optical part of the model. The simulated phase maps were then compared qualitatively with experimental phase maps measured using shearography. This approach is suitable to understand the response of components under load and to predict anomalies such as defects, thereby making the analysis of measured phase maps easier and less empirical.