THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL METHODOLOGY FOR TOMOGRAPHIC PHOTOELASTICITY

A description is given of the current development of a novel, non-destructive, experimental method which allows the determination of 3-D stress distributions in birefringent materials. A conventional polariscope is used through which to view the model with the addition of a component positioning device. A minimal set of measurements has been devised which can be easily and efficiently realized in an actual laboratory arrangement, and which produces precisely the sufficient amount of data in order to tomographically reconstruct the full stress tensor within the bulk matter of the medium. The paper includes an outline of the mathematical procedure, the results of numerical tests of the algorithms and a discussion of further work necessary to realise a truly practical technique