Digital photoelasticity has rapidly progressed in the last few years and has matured into an industry-friendly technique. This review thematically classifies all the developments in digital photoelasticity and highlights the relative merits and drawbacks of the various techniques. The overall objective is to provide enough information and guidance to allow an end-user to make an informed choice on the type of technique to be used in a particular situation.

Digital photoelasticity – A comprehensive review

Review of RGB photoelasticity

Digital photoelasticity: Recent developments and diverse applications

Visualization of the three-dimensional structure and stress field of aggregated concrete materials through 3D printing and frozen-stress techniques

Digital photoelasticity of glass: A comprehensive review

Colour adaptation in three fringe photoelasticity using a single image

The influence of ambient illumination on colour adaptation in three fringe photoelasticity

Transient thermal stresses of a bimaterial specimen with interface edge cracks subjected to heating along an edge is analysed by refined three-fringe photoelasticity (RTFP). Whole-field, noise-free, fringe order estimation using a single colour image is made possible using RTFP combined with colour adaptation. The stress intensity factors (SIFs) of the interface crack are determined through a multiparameter overdeterministic system of equations by a least-squares approach using experimental data collected automatically. The transient SIFs are found to peak to a higher value than in steady state, and the opening mode is found to be dominant. An increase in thermal load causes the crack to propagate, and this is easily visualized on the basis of quantitative fringe order data available for the whole field. The SIFs of a propagating crack are found to be low. The study shows that the crack propagates easily when the opening mode is dominant.

Transient thermal stress intensity factors of bimaterial interface cracks using refined three-fringe photoelasticity

Digital photoelastic evaluation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) of bimaterial interface cracks using the method of least
squares and the multi-parameter stress field equations is of current interest. For this, positional coordinates (with crack
tip as origin) and corresponding fringe orders of data points are collected along isochromatic fringe contours in such a
way that the geometric features of the fringe field are captured. Whole-field evaluation of isochromatic parameter is now
made possible by various techniques of digital photoelasticity, enabling automation of the data collection procedure and
collection of data points along fractional fringe orders as well. However, the identification of the crack tip, still done
interactively, is prone to error. When the crack tip location is inaccurately identified, the evaluated SIFs are considerably
different. The effect of error in precise identification of the crack tip on the evaluated SIFs is analyzed with the help of
theoretically simulated fringe fields, in order to arrive at a technique by which the crack tip could be detected in a semiautomated
fashion reducing this error in the evaluated SIFs.

B. Neethi Simon

Papers

Digital photoelasticity – A comprehensive review

Colour adaptation in three fringe photoelasticity using a single image

The influence of ambient illumination on colour adaptation in three fringe photoelasticity

Transient thermal stress intensity factors of bimaterial interface cracks using refined three-fringe photoelasticity

Effect of error in crack tip identification on the photoelastic evaluation of SIFs of interface cracks