Shearography, also called speckle pattern shearing interferometry, is a coherent optical method which measures displacement derivatives directly. It is suited well for localization of strain concentrations and has been used as an industrial tool for non-destructive testing (NDT) in the last few years. However, its application for strain measurement has not been widely adopted in industry, because, in general, shearography can measure only out-of-plane displacement derivatives ∂w/∂x and ∂w/∂y. This paper presents recent developments of shearography for strain measurement. With the support of digital image processing the automatic and quantitative evaluation of the shearogram becomes possible. Not only flexural strains [∂2w/∂x2, ∂2w/∂y2 and ∂2w/(∂y)] but also in-plane strains (∂u/∂x, ∂v/∂y, ∂u/∂y and ∂v/∂x) can be determined by the shearographic measuring method. The potentials and limitations for strain measurement are discussed. Some applications are shown.
