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A
photoelastic material is one that has a stress dependent refractive index.
When placed between crossed polarizers, the rotation of the polarized light
by the stress field in the material generates a fringe pattern displaying
contours of equal stress. The method may be made quantitative if the photoelastic
coefficient of the material is known. The photograph shows the effect of
a notch stress concentrator at the bottom of a photoelastic sample. In
the region of high stress gradients the fringes are closely spaced (near
the notch tip) and in regions of low stress gradient the fringes are well
spaced. |
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