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PHOTOELASTICITY
Photoelasticity is a group of optical methods that serve to determine experimentally the state of strains. We will
talk here about the basic method only, which uses an observation of light passing through a transparent material
having property of strain-induced birefringence.
Photoelasticity is commonly used to examine models of plane structures. In order to relate experimental results
to reality, the model has to fulfill some conditions of similarity. However, in many cases, like in plane state of
stress, the stress repartition does not depend on the material constants so the experimental results are valid for
any other anisotropic material.
Due to the above-mentioned facts, the photoelasticity has great teaching advantages, visualizing the stresses in
color images and providing easy verification of assumptions and theoretical results. Therefore, despite of great
progress of numerical calculations in mechanics, photoelasticity remains essential part of laboratory course on
the strength of materials.
A2 = cos sint,
and, after the shift caused by the pass through the model:
A1 = sin sint, A2 = cos sin(t ),
Horizontal component behind the analyzer is:
Aa = A1 cos A2 sin = sin2 sin0.5 cos(t - 0.5).
So, some part of light will be extinguished if sin2 = 0 or sin0.5 = 0.
In the first case, the directions of principal stresses are parallel to (mutually perpendicular) directions of
polarization of polarizer and analyzer. The rays in such points extinguish and dark bands remain on the screen.
They are called isoclinics.
Isoclinics are the locus of the points in the specimen along which the principal stresses are in the same direction
(as polarizer and analyzer crossed).
The angle between one principal direction and the reference system is the isoclinics parameter. The image of
isoclinics depends on polarizer/analyzer setting.
The second case arises when the phase shift is multiplicity of vibration period:
0.5 = m, and = m (2).
then, the shift is multiplicity of the wave length: = m. Comparing two formulae, we get the equation of
isochromatics:
1 2 = km,
where k is elastooptic constant and m is isochromatics order.
Isochromatics are the locus of the points along which the difference in the first and second principal stress
remains the same. Thus they are the lines which join the points with equal maximum shear stress magnitude.
Circular polariscope
In a circular polariscope setup two quarter-wave plates are added to the experimental setup of the plane
polariscope. The first quarter-wave plate is placed in between the polariser and the specimen and the second
quarter-wave plate is placed between the specimen and the analyser. The effect of adding the quarter-wave plates
is that we get circularly polarised light.
The basic advantage of a circular polariscope over a plane polariscope is that in a circular polariscope setup we
only get the isochromatics and not the isoclinics. This eliminates the problem of differentiating between the
isoclinics and the isochromatics.
during loading the isochromatics appear first in the points with the highest stresses, the most often at
boundary of the model,
with loading the higher order isochromatics appear, and the former translate to the less stressed regions,
the isochromatics do not cross nor connect with others,
they do not change with the polarizer/analyzer revolutions,
they appear in the same order as contour lines: the isochromatics of n-th order is between isochromatics of
order n-1 and n+1,
the isochromatics of zero order is always black and is the region where every direction is principal,
higher density of isochromatics means greater stress gradient (stress concentrations),
like on the topographic map, the region with uniform color means constant level of stress,
in uniaxial state of stress , where one principal stress value is zero, the value of the second principal value
can be determined directly from isochromatics equation; this is true also for unloaded edge of model (as
results of static boundary conditions),
the sign of stress at the unloaded edge can be determined by simple loading with pencil: if isochromatics
pass to the side of higher isochromatics the edge is compressed,
fractional order of isochromatics are determined by compensation methods: Tardys (goniometric) method
and with compensators.
Optical bench
Fig. 12. Isochromatics image in curved beam and resulting stress distribution