Multi-Scale Optical and Image Processing Methods for Mechanical Characterization and Application

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to announce this Special Issue “Multi-Scale Optical and Image Processing Methods for Mechanical Characterization and Application”, which will appear in Applied Science.

With the advancement in imaging instrumentation, lighting resources, computational power and data storage, optical and image processing methods have gained increasingly wider applications across the scientific society during the past few decades. These methods have been applied for measurements over a wide range of spatial domain and temporal resolution. They have been developed not only to make two-dimensional and three-dimensional deformation measurements on the surface, but also to make volumetric measurements throughout the interior of a material body.

Multi-scale analysis is the approach for the mechanical behavior study of material elements from the macroscopic, micro- and nanoscale approach to characterization of materials. A definite strength of optical and image processing methods is the possibility of changing measurement scales by properly modulating wave frequencies and setting parameters of experimental setups. Optical and image processing methods are naturally suited for mechanical characterization and application in view of their capability to accurately measure displacements, strains and stresses in real time and to gather full field information without altering objects conditions. It covers a full range of wavelengths from X-ray to visible lights and infrared. Non-conventional illumination and super-resolution techniques may increase measurement resolutions to the nanoscale. The multi-scale ability is fundamental in complex fields, such as bioengineering, MEMS, high precision metrology, etc.

This Special Issue will focus on advances in the multi-scale mechanical characterization and application with optical and imaging processing methods. The aim is to provide a forum on the state-of-the-art and frontier applications for characterization. Submissions should be in the form of original research articles or authoritative review papers on the following, non-exhaustive, list of topics:

• Photoelasticity and interferometry applications;
• Moiré, speckle and holography methods;
• Image processing methods;
• DIC method and its applications;
• Micro-optics and microscopic systems;
• Multiscale and new developments in optical methods;
• Hybrid methods;
• Inverse methods;
• Microscopy techniques (including fluorescence and electron microscopy);
• Non-conventional illumination and super-resolution;
• Mechanics of materials and constitutive models;
• Bioengineering and biomechanics;
• Nanometrology;
• Aerospace and aeronautical engineering;
• High precision metrology for machine tools and robot TCP. 

Prof. Dr. Terry Yuan-Fang Chen
Prof. Dr. Ming-Tzer Lin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• optical methods
• image processing methods
• multi-scale mechanical characterization
• microscopy and super-resolution
• hybrid and inverse methods
• metrology