The present application is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 467,074, filed on May 6, 1974 now abandoned.

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for monitoring small displacements of a solid body by means of coherent light.

It has been contemplated to monitor such small displacements of a solid body by aiming at the same a beam of coherent light and by counting passing interference fringes corresponding to the displacement of the body at a point situated in a beam reflected off the body as well as in a beam originating directly from the source of coherent light.

Practical uses of this method have not, however, been possible till now. In point of fact, the method apparently requires that the surface of the solid body should have reflective qualities similar to those of a mirror and that the portion of the solid body reflecting the beam of coherent light should be of sufficiently small size to be considered a point.

These two conditions are not fulfilled in practice.

In fact, the part of a body whose displacements are to be monitored and which is struck by the beam of coherent light is not a point and is not a perfect mirror so that the diffusion of the coherent light on the part produces, at the viewing point, the appearance of a parasite phenomenon known as the "speckle effect or phenomenon" which prevents the use of interference with the beam coming directly from the reference source or beam.

According to the invention, use is made of the parasite phenomenon to affect the light striking the body so as to compensate at all times for the speckle phenomenon so that the interference fringes of the reflected beam with the reference beam may be monitored under the same conditions as when the body to be monitored has mirrorlike reflective qualities.

One aspect of the invention comprises the steps of producing in a zone other than the viewing or observation zone, a speckle phenomenon from the diffused beam of coherent light, and affecting the intensity of the light striking the body in correspondence of the speckle phenomenon in order to compensate at all times for variations resulting therefrom.

In the description which follows, given by way of example, reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an arrangement or apparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of part of the arrangement;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2 but gives additional information;

FIG. 4 is a graphic plotting current strength versus time;

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of the speckle effect;

FIG. 6 is another graphic plotting current strength versus time.

S is a laser source which provides a beam T (FIG. 1) of recti-linearly polarized monochromatic light. The beam T falls on a transparent reflecting plate 1. The part T₁ of the beam T that passes through the plate 1 constitutes the test beam and the reflected part T₂ constitutes the reference beam. The test beam T₁ passes through an electro-optical modulator K which is a Kerr cell or a Pockels cell.

In case a Pockels cell is used, the modulator comprises a crystal 11 (FIGS. 2 and 3) with the incident face 12 perpendicular to the axis 13 of the beam T₁. The crystal 11 is oriented so that the polarization direction V of the coherent light carried by the beam T₁ is at 45° to the vectors V_X and V_Y associated with the crystal, corresponding to its crystallographic axis, sometimes known respectively as the fast and slow axis. The crystal 11 is followed by a linear polarizer 14 whose direction of polarization 15 is parallel to the polarization direction V.

The modulator comprises two electrodes e₁ and e₂ cooperating with the crystal 11. As is known, when there is no potential difference between the electrodes e₁ and e₂, the crystal 11 is devoid of any double refraction for a propagation taking place along the Z axis which is perpendicular to the incident and exit faces. The components V_X and V_Y of the luminous vibration projected on the X- and Y- axes are then propagated at the same speed in the crystal, combining together when they emerge from the crystal as a vibration V_s having the same polarization as that of the incident vibration (FIG. 2).

If, on the other hand, a potential difference is applied at the electrodes e₁ and e₂, the crystal becomes double refractive or birefringent: the components V_X and V_Y of the vibration are propagated in the crystal at different speeds. These components therefore emerge from the crystal with a phase difference proportional to the applied potential difference. Consequently, at the emergent side or face, there is an elliptically polarized vibration whose axes X' and Y' are respectively parallel and perpendicular to the polarization direction of the incident light (FIG. 3).

The polarizer 14 oriented along the X-axis then selects the component V'_X of the elliptical vibration projected onto the X' axis. As the component V'_X is parallel to the incident vibration, the beam of light emerging from the polarizer 14 enables the measure after interference with the reference vibration. The amplitude of the V'_X component will depend in size on the phase difference produced by the crystal, therefore on the electric current applied at the electrodes e₁ and e₂.

The test beam T then passes through a transparent reflecting plate L and a transparent reflecting plate L' and falls as a point P on and perpendicular to the solid body M whose displacements are to be measured. The monitored body M is, for instance, a turbine blade subjected to the action of a vibration excitation represented by the double-beaded arrow f the displacements of point P being not necessarily restricted only to translations but can eventually comprise a rotation.

The beam T'₁ diffused at the "point" P passes through the plate L' in a direction opposite to the direction of the beam T₁ and is reflected onto the plate L along the so-called test beam T'₁. The test beam falls on aperture O₁ of a stop or diaphragm D₁ positioned in front of a photomultiplier PM₁. The reference beam T₂ originating from the beam T provided by the laser after reflecting off the plate 1 to a first mirror M₁, to a second mirror M₂ and then through a lens d and the plate L also falls on the aperture O₁.

Part of the beam T'₁ diffused by the solid body M at point P is in addition reflected by the plate L' along a beam T"₁ which falls on the aperture O₂ of a second stop or diaphragm D₂ positioned in front of a second photomultiplier PM₂ at the same optical position with respect to point P as the diaphragm D₁. The size of the aperture O₂ of the diaphragm D₂ is selected to be sufficiently small in order to be less than that of the image of a grain or spot of the speckle figure, so that the lighting of the aperture O₂ may thus be considered constant.

The voltage delivered by the second photomultiplier PM₂ is supplied to an inverter (amplifier) G whose output provides the potential difference which is delivered to the electrodes e₁ and e₂ via circuit 16.

If the solid body M has a perfectly homogeneous structure at the point P, i.e., if the zone on which the laser beam T₁ falls has a uniform reflective power, then the interference at the aperture O₁ of the test beam T'₁ of the diaphragm D₁ with the reference beam T₂ of uniform amplitude, would provide, during vibration of the body M, by means of the photomultiplier PM₁, a current whose amplitude is represented as a function of time in the schematic curve shown in FIG. 4.

An electronic pulse counter C connected to the photomultiplier PM₁ and counting the rising ramps by means of, for example, a trigger threshold adjusted to the middle of the ramps can yield information as to the movement of the zone P of the body M.

But owing to the inevitable granular structure of the constituent material of the solid body M, there is produced on diaphragm D₁ in the vicinity of the aperture O₁, disregarding the interference with the reference beam T₂, a variation in lighting resulting from the speckle phenomenon. If, for instance, at a predetermined point in time a light speckled or spotted zone is superimposed at the aperture O₁ (FIG. 5), the vibration of the body M in lateral translation and/or rotation will cause the spotted or speckled zone to be displaced with respect to the aperture O₁, and facing the aperture O₁, more or less light or dark zones in correspondence with the configuration of the speckle zone will move by. The differences in lighting resulting from the speckle fringe phenomenon would modulate the amplitude of the fringes caused by the interference of the test beam with the reference beam as shown on FIG. 6, hence rendering the interference phenomenon unusable by the counter C.

Now the speckle which is formed on the diaphragm D₂ is identical to that formed on the diaphragm D₁ ; during the vibration of the solid body M, the spotted zone passes in front of the aperture O₂ in the same manner as the spotted zone passes in front of the aperture O₁, a fact which has been indicated on FIG. 5 by adjunction of reference O₂. Variations in current at the output of the photomultiplier PM₂ resulting from the speckle phenomenon on the diaphragm D₂ are the same as the current variations at the output of the photomultiplier PM₁ resulting from the speckle phenomenon alone on the diaphragm D₁.

If, for example, during vibration, the lighting of the aperture O₂ tends to diminish, the inverter (amplifier) G gives rise to potential difference between the electrodes e₁ and e₂ to increase the intensity of the test light beam T₁ emerging from cell K and polarizer 14 in order to compensate for this decreased lighting. By means of the feedback control loop which comprises the photomultiplier PM₂, the inverter (amplifier) G, the cell K, and the test beam T₁, T"₁, the lighting value in the aperture O₂ of the diaphragm D₂ remains constant. As the lighting variations of the aperture O₁ resulting from the speckle phenomenon are the same as those of the aperture O₂, the lighting variations of aperture O₁ resulting from the speckle are thus eliminated so that the photomultiplier PM₁ is affected only by the lighting variations resulting solely from the interference of the reflected beam T'₁ with the reference beam T₂. Thus, the effect of the displacement of the speckle figure on the photomultiplier PM₁ is suppressed and the number of pulses counted by the counter C associated with the photomultiplier PM₁ corresponds to the number of fringes which passes in front of the aperture O₁ as a function of the movement of the zone P of the solid body M as results from the interference between the test beam T'₁ and the reference beam T₂.

The aperture O₁ of the diaphragm has the same diameter as the aperture O₂ and is in a position such that it is covered by the same zone of the spotted image.

In the absence of the compensation provided by the photomultiplier PM₂ and the modulator or cell K the output current strength produced by the photomultiplier PM₁ would be as shown in the graph of FIG. 6 which would not render the information or count of the counter C significant with regard to the interference fringes of the test beam and the reference beam. The function of the photomultiplier PM₂, the inverter (amplifier) G and the modulator or cell K is therefore to obtain an output current strength of the photomultiplier PM₁ which is as shown in the graph of FIG. 4 whereby the number of interference fringes may be easily counted by the counter C.

Thus the invention allows the vibration measurements of turbine blades although it concerns the bending and torsional deflections or displacements as well as the displacement of the "point" which is not in pure translation but combined with rotation.