In the field of experimental mechanics, there exist some circumstances when only data at
the boundary can be obtained while the internal data are unavailable, or when some data are missed
due to shadow, illumination saturation and other reasons. Thus it would be helpful if a reasonable
estimation of the unavailable or missed data can be obtained. In this study, an algorithm is
developed to reconstruct the missed data from the existing ones by generating a series of equations
about the missed data and solving for an optimal solution using least-squares approach. Results
based on both simulation data and real incomplete experimental data obtained by shearography and
fringe projection show the usefulness and potential of the algorithm for experimental mechanics
applications.
