Visualizing Stress Fields With Photoelastic Holography

Abstract

A review of basic techniques for recording various features of two-dimensional stress fields with photoelastic holography is presented. The emphasis is placed on the relationship between polarization of the object and reference beams in simple transmission holographic systems and on the type of fringe pattern produced, as well as its interpretation in terms of the stress field. After describing established techniques for single-exposure, double-exposure, time-average, and real-time holography of photoelastic models, the paper concludes with early results of a new method for direct optical separation of the stress components.