Photoelasticity

Photoelasticity describes changes in the

optical properties of a material under
mechanical deformation. It is a property of
all dielectric media and is often used to
experimentally determine the stress
distribution in a material, where it gives a
picture of stress distributions around
discontinuities in materials. Photoelastic
experiments (also informally referred to as
photoelasticity) are an important tool for
determining critical stress points in a
material, and are used for determining
stress concentration in irregular
geometries.

Plastic utensils in a photoelasticity experiment

History
The photoelastic phenomenon was first
discovered by the Scottish physicist David
Brewster.[1][2] Experimental frameworks
were developed at the beginning of the
twentieth century with the works of E. G.
Coker and L. N. G. Filon of University of
London. Their book Treatise on
Photoelasticity, published in 1930 by
Cambridge Press, became a standard text
on the subject. Between 1930 and 1940,
many other books appeared on the
subject, including books in Russian,
German and French. At the same time,
much development occurred in the field –
great improvements were achieved in
technique, and the equipment was
simplified. With refinements in the
technology, photoelastic experiments were
extended to determining three-
dimensional states of stress. In parallel to
developments in experimental technique,
the first phenomenological description of
photoelasticity was given in 1890 by
Friedrich Pockels,[3] however this was
proved inadequate almost a century later
by Nelson & Lax[4] as the description by
Pockels only considered the effect of
mechanical strain on the optical properties
of the material.

With the advent of the digital polariscope

– made possible by light-emitting diodes –
continuous monitoring of structures under
load became possible. This led to the
development of dynamic photoelasticity,
which has contributed greatly to the study
of complex phenomena such as fracture
of materials.

Applications

Photoelastic model to validate the stiffener model.

Isochromatic fringe patterns around a steel platelet in
a photo-elastic two-part epoxy resin.

Photoelasticity has been used for a variety

of stress analyses and even for routine
use in design, particularly before the
advent of numerical methods, such as
finite elements or boundary elements.[5]
Digitization of polariscopy enables fast
image acquisition and data processing,
which allows its industrial applications to
control quality of manufacturing process
for materials such as glass[6] and
polymer.[7] Dentistry utilizes
photoelasticity to analyze strain in denture
materials.[8]

Photoelasticity can successfully be used

to investigate the highly localized stress
state within masonry[9][10][11] or in
proximity of a rigid line inclusion (stiffener)
embedded in an elastic medium.[12] In the
former case, the problem is nonlinear due
to the contacts between bricks, while in
the latter case the elastic solution is
singular, so that numerical methods may
fail to provide correct results. These can
be obtained through photoelastic
techniques. Dynamic photoelasticity
integrated with high-speed photography is
utilized to investigate fracture behavior in
materials.[13] Another important
application of the photoelasticity
experiments is to study the stress field
around bi-material notches.[14] Bi-material
notches exist in many engineering
application like welded or adhesively
bonded structures
Formal definition
For a linear dielectric material the change
in the inverse permittivity tensor
with respect to the deformation
(the gradient of the displacement ) is
described by [15]

where is the fourth-rank

photoelasticity tensor, is the linear
displacement from equilibrium, and
denotes differentiation with respect to the
Cartesian coordinate . For isotropic
materials, this definition simplifies to [16]
where is the symmetric part of the
photoelastic tensor (the photoelastic
strain tensor), and is the linear strain.
The antisymmetric part of is known
as the roto-optic tensor. From either
definition, it is clear that deformations to
the body may induce optical anisotropy,
which can cause an otherwise optically
isotropic material to exhibit birefringence.
Although the symmetric photoelastic
tensor is most commonly defined with
respect to mechanical strain, it is also
possible to express photoelasticity in
terms of the mechanical stress.
Experimental principles

Tension lines in a plastic protractor seen under cross-

polarized light

The experimental procedure relies on the

property of birefringence, as exhibited by
certain transparent materials.
Birefringence is a phenomenon in which a
ray of light passing through a given
material experiences two refractive
indices. The property of birefringence (or
double refraction) is observed in many
optical crystals. Upon the application of
stresses, photoelastic materials exhibit the
property of birefringence, and the
magnitude of the refractive indices at each
point in the material is directly related to
the state of stresses at that point.
Information such as maximum shear
stress and its orientation are available by
analyzing the birefringence with an
instrument called a polariscope.

When a ray of light passes through a

photoelastic material, its electromagnetic
wave components are resolved along the
two principal stress directions and each
component experiences a different
refractive index due to the birefringence.
The difference in the refractive indices
leads to a relative phase retardation
between the two components. Assuming a
thin specimen made of isotropic materials,
where two-dimensional photoelasticity is
applicable, the magnitude of the relative
retardation is given by the stress-optic
law:[17]

where Δ is the induced retardation, C is the

stress-optic coefficient, t is the specimen
thickness, λ is the vacuum wavelength,
and σ1 and σ2 are the first and second
principal stresses, respectively. The
retardation changes the polarization of
transmitted light. The polariscope
combines the different polarization states
of light waves before and after passing the
specimen. Due to optical interference of
the two waves, a fringe pattern is revealed.
The number of fringe order N is denoted
as

which depends on relative retardation. By

studying the fringe pattern one can
determine the state of stress at various
points in the material.

For materials that do not show

photoelastic behavior, it is still possible to
study the stress distribution. The first step
is to build a model, using photoelastic
materials, which has geometry similar to
the real structure under investigation. The
loading is then applied in the same way to
ensure that the stress distribution in the
model is similar to the stress in the real
structure.

Isoclinics and isochromatics

Isoclinics are the loci of the points in the
specimen along which the principal
stresses are in the same direction.

Isochromatics are the loci 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.[18]

Two-dimensional
photoelasticity
Photoelastic experiment showing the internal stress
distribution inside the cover of a Jewel case

Photoelasticity can describe both three-

dimensional and two-dimensional states
of stress. However, examining
photoelasticity in three-dimensional
systems is more involved than two-
dimensional or plane-stress system. So
the present section deals with
photoelasticity in a plane stress system.
This condition is achieved when the
thickness of the prototype is much smaller
as compared to dimensions in the plane.
Thus one is only concerned with stresses
acting parallel to the plane of the model,
as other stress components are zero. The
experimental setup varies from
experiment to experiment. The two basic
kinds of setup used are plane polariscope
and circular polariscope.

The working principle of a two-

dimensional experiment allows the
measurement of retardation, which can be
converted to the difference between the
first and second principal stress and their
orientation. To further get values of each
stress component, a technique called
stress-separation is required.[19] Several
theoretical and experimental methods are
utilized to provide additional information
to solve individual stress components.

Plane polariscope setup

The setup consists of two linear polarizers
and a light source. The light source can
either emit monochromatic light or white
light depending upon the experiment. First
the light is passed through the first
polarizer which converts the light into
plane polarized light. The apparatus is set
up in such a way that this plane polarized
light then passes through the stressed
specimen. This light then follows, at each
point of the specimen, the direction of
principal stress at that point. The light is
then made to pass through the analyzer
and we finally get the fringe pattern.

The fringe pattern in a plane polariscope

setup consists of both the isochromatics
and the isoclinics. The isoclinics change
with the orientation of the polariscope
while there is no change in the
isochromatics.
Transmission Circular Polariscope
The same device functions as a plane polariscope

when quarter wave plates are taken aside or rotated

so their axes parallel to polarization axes

Circular polariscope setup

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 polarizer and the specimen and the
second quarter-wave plate is placed
between the specimen and the analyzer.
The effect of adding the quarter-wave
plate after the source-side polarizer is that
we get circularly polarized light passing
through the sample. The analyzer-side
quarter-wave plate converts the circular
polarization state back to linear before the
light passes through the analyzer.

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.
See also
Acousto-optic modulator
Electrostriction
Mechanochromism
Photoelastic modulator
Polarimetry

References
1. D. Brewster, Experiments on the
depolarization of light as exhibited by
various mineral, animal and vegetable
bodies with a reference of the phenomena
to the general principle of polarization, Phil.
Tras. 1815, pp. 29–53.
2. D. Brewster, On the communication of the
structure of doubly-refracting crystals to
glass, murite of soda, flour spar, and other
substances by mechanical compression
and dilation, Phil. Tras. 1816, pp. 156–178.
3. Pockels, F. Ueber die durch einseitigen
Druck hervorgerufene Doppelbrechung
regulärer Krystalle, speciell von Steinsalz
und Sylvin, Annalen der Physik, 275, 1890,
440.
4. Nelson, D.F., and Lax, M. New Symmetry for
Acousto-Optic Scattering, Physical Review
Letters, 1970, 24:8, 379-380.
5. Frocht, M.M., Photoelasticity. J. Wiley and
Sons, London, 1965
 . Ajovalasit, A., Petrucci, G., Scafidi, M., RGB
photoelasticity applied to the analysis of
membrane residual stress in glass,
Measurement Science and Technology,
2012, 23-2, no. 025601
7. Kramer, S., Beiermann, B., Davis, D., Sottos,
N., White, S., Moore, J., Characterization of
mechanochemically active polymers using
combined photoelasticity and fluorescence
measurements, SEM Annual Conference
and Exposition on Experimental and
Applied Mechanics, 2010, 2, pp. 896–907.
. Fernandes, C. P., Glantz, P.-O. J., Svensson,
S. A., Bergmark, A. Reflection
photoelasticity: A new method for studies
of clinical mechanics in prosthetic dentistry
Dental Materials, 2003, 19-2, pp. 106–117.
 9. D. Bigoni and G. Noselli, Localized stress
percolation through dry masonry walls. Part
I – Experiments. European Journal of
Mechanics A/Solids, 2010, 29, 291–298.
10. D. Bigoni and G. Noselli, Localized stress
percolation through dry masonry walls. Part
II – Modelling. European Journal of
Mechanics A/Solids, 2010, 29, pp. 299–
307.
11. Bigoni, D. Nonlinear Solid Mechanics:
Bifurcation Theory and Material Instability.
Cambridge University Press, 2012 .
ISBN 9781107025417.
12. G. Noselli, F. Dal Corso and D. Bigoni, The
stress intensity near a stiffener disclosed
by photoelasticity. International Journal of
Fracture, 2010, 166, 91–103.
13. Shukla, A., High-speed fracture studies on
bimaterial interfaces using photoelasticity
– A review, Journal of Strain Analysis for
Engineering Design, 2012, 36-2, 119–142.
14. Ayatollahi, M. R., Mirsayar, M. M., Dehghany,
M., Experimental determination of stress
field parameters in bi-material notches
using photoelasticity, "Materials & Design,"
2011, 32, 4901–4908.
15. J. F. Nye, "Physical Properties of Crystals:
Their Representation by Tensors and
Matrices", Oxford University Press, 1957.
1 . R. E. Newnham, "Properties of Materials:
Anisotropy, Symmetry, Structure", Oxford
University Press, 2005.
17. Dally, J.W. and Riley, W.F., Experimental
Stress Analysis, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill
Inc., 1991
1 . Ramesh, K., Digital Photoelasticity, Springer,
2000
19. Fernandez M.S-B., Calderon, J. M. A., Diez,
P. M. B. and Segura, I. I. C., Stress-
separation techniques in photoelasticity: A
review. The Journal of Strain Analysis for
Engineering Design, 2010, 45:1
[doi:10.1243/03093247JSA583]

External links
University of Cambridge Page on
Photoelasticity.
 Laboratory for Physical Modeling of
Structures and Photoelasticity
(University of Trento, Italy)
Build your own polariscope

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