Evaluation of low viscosity variations in fluids using temporal and spatial analysis of the speckle pattern.

The noninvasive detection of a material's viscoelasticity is of great importance in the medical field. In fact, certain diseases cause changes in tissue structure and biological fluid viscosity; tracking those changes allows for detection of these diseases. Rheological measurements are also imperative in the industrial field, where it is necessary to characterize a material's viscoelasticity for manufacturing purposes. In this Letter, we present a noncontact, noninvasive, and low cost method for determining low viscosity values and variations in fluids. Laser speckle and viscometric measurements are performed on test samples having low scattering coefficients and low viscosities. The speckle spatial analysis proved to be as accurate as the speckle temporal correlation method reported in previous studies. Very low viscosities of the order of 1 mPa.s were retrieved for the first time using speckle images with either a frame rate of 1950 fps or a single acquired image.