A new technique for determining the stress state in a three-dimensional transparent body is described. This method involves cast-ing dye molecules into a model material and using the fluorescent light to analysis the stress state. The techniques of scattered light photoelasticity and speckle interferometry are considered and the enhancement of these techniques by the use of fluorescent is reported. The amount of illumination is greatly increased and the wavelength red-shifted, which eliminates the undesirable boundary halo; however, at the expense of a loss of coherence and a degree of depolarization of the light. Rhodamine 6G dye molecules are cast into gelatin, epoxy resin (PLM-4) and urethane rubber (Solithane 113) model materials. The light scattering, fluorescent, and fringe formation processes of each material is investigated. It is observed that even for the standard scattered light photoelastic materials without dye molecules the scattering is not Rayleigh, but rather has a large amount of wavelength broadening, the center wavelength, is red-shifted, and a high degree of depolarization occurs. A theory of photoelastic fringe formation for fluorescent materials is proposed. Experimental results are presented and the use of digital image processor in filtering background illumination is shown to greatly enhance fringe visibility.

Date Published: 17 February 1987
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 0814, Photomechanics and Speckle Metrology, (17 February 1987); doi: 10.1117/12.941692

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0814:
Photomechanics and Speckle Metrology
Fu-Pen Chiang, Editor(s)