Abstract
The optical method of caustics constitutes an efficient experimental technique for the determination of quantities of interest in elasticity problems. Up to now, this method has been applied only to two-dimensional elasticity problems (including plate and shell problems). In this paper, the method of caustics is extended to the case of three-dimensional elasticity problems. The particular problems of a concentrated force and a uniformly distributed loading acting normally on a half-space (on a circular region) are treated in detail. Experimentally obtained caustics for the first of these problems were seen to be in satisfactory agreement with the corresponding theoretical forms. The treatment of various, more complicated, three-dimensional elasticity problems, including contact problems, by the method of caustics is also possible.
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