Photoelastic methods for thermal stress problems

Several methods for both two and three dimensional thermoelastic problems were studied. The report emphasizes the difficulties encountered due to thermal effects. Radiation and convection heat transfer are important when studying thermal stresses in photoelastic materials. Radiation and convection heat transfer are not normally important in metals, thus the thermal similarity was studied for the photoelastic methods. A discussion of scattered light using a laser as a light source is discussed and this method appears to be the most promising method.Babcock and Wilcox Research Center 65/0