The Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique is being used as an alternative tracking of centroids of markers placed in a regular grid to measure soil displacements. PIV has been used for many years in fluid mechanics; but for physical modelling in geotechnical engineering, this technique is still relatively new. The use of PIV is feasible provided the surface contains sufficient texture. A Cambridge group has shown that natural sand contains enough texture for applying PIV. But when homogeneous clay is used, there is not enough texture on the surface for PIV to be used. Thus to use PIV, a texture has to be marked on the clay surface. This paper addresses specifically the issue of PIV on clay model which does not have natural texture. Two different methods of marking this texture were examined. Then, through a series of calibration tests, errors under 1g and 100g conditions using the PIV method are assessed. Some factors influencing the accuracy of the PIV method were also examined. The results confir...