Photoelastic stress analysis for a Rhombus plate compressive load using image processing technique

Photoelasticity is a useful technique for obtaining the differences and directions of principal stresses in a model. In conventional photoelasticity, the photoelastic parameters are measured manually point by point. Identifying and measuring photoelastic data is time-consuming and requires skill. The fringe phase shifting method was recently developed and has been found to be convenient for measuring and analyzing fringe data in photo-mechanics. This paper presents an experimental study on the stress distribution along a horizontal line that passes the central point of a rhombus plate made of Photoflex (i.e., type of urethane rubber). The isoclinic fringe and/or principal stress direction is constant on this horizontal line, so a four-bucket phase shifting method can be applied. The method requires four photoelastic fringes that are obtained from a circular polariscope by rotating the analyzer at 0 degree C, 45 degree C, 90 degree C and 135 degree C. Experimental measurements using the method were quantitatively compared with the results from FEM analysis; the results from the two methods showed comparable agreement.