SURFACE-ROUGHNESS STUDY USING LASER SPECKLE METHOD

Current techniques for surface-roughness measurements can be classifie d into two broad categories: those using a measuring stylus which requ ires direct contact with the test object and those using non-contactin g laser techniques. In this paper, a whole-field speckle method is emp loyed to deter mine metallic-surface-roughness. The technique enables evaluation of the roughness of particular points on a surface. Six set s of surfaces prepared by a spark-erosion process with roughness rangi ng fi om 0.4-12.5 mu m have been tested. Different correlation methods were used to process the test data and a practical method of evaluati ng surface-roughness is proposed. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Scien ce Ltd. All rights reserved.