Real-time photoelastic stress analysis - a new dynamic photoelastic method

The combination of a set of innovations has brought photoelastic stress analysis up-to-date and now offer the opportunity to carry out, in a non-destructive way, real time stress monitoring of components or structures. Having an improved sensitivity, this technique allows to monitor changing stress patterns as they happen. Also, much thinner coatings can be used. These can easily and quickly be spread onto the structure and are tinted to allow automatic measurement of coating thickness. The use of cleverly designed optics means that every image acquired by the CCD camera contains all the information necessary to display a calibrated strain pattern, enabling high-speed and live dynamic imaging of stresses. Some examples show the potential to use this non-destructive technique in an industrial environment for different applications.