Optical-flow-based motion compensation algorithm in thermoelastic stress analysis using single-infrared video

Thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) is a non-contact measurement technique for stress distribution evaluation. A common issue related to this technique is the rigid-displacement of the specimen during the test phase, that can compromise the reliability of the measurement. For this purpose, several motion compensation techniques have been implemented over the years, but none of them is provided through a single measurement and a single sample surface conditioning. Due to this, a motion compensation technique based on Optical-Flow has been implemented, which greatly increases the strength and the effectiveness of the methodology through a single measurement and single specimen preparation. The proposed approach is based on measuring the displacement field of the specimen directly from the thermal video, through optical flow. This displacement field is then used to compensate for the specimen's displacement on the infrared video, which will then be used for thermoelastic stress analysis. Firstly, the algorithm was validated by a comparison with synthetic videos, created ad hoc, and the quality of the motion compensation approach was evaluated on video acquired in the visible range. The research moved into infrared acquisitions, where the application of TSA gave reliable and accurate results. Finally, the quality of the stress map obtained was verified by comparison with a numerical model.