Three-dimensional photoelastic investigations of circular cylinders with spherical cavities in axial loading

This paper presents three-dimensional photoelastic studies of the stress distributions in circular cylinders with spherical cavities on their centerlines under tension and compression loadings. The experimental procedures, the stress distributions along different lines as well as the comparison of the results with existing analytical solutions are included. Cavities are often in existence in engineering materials and structures. Considerable attention has been devoted analytically to their effect on the stress distribution. However, experimental investigation and verifications of the theoretical solutions of the cavity problems have been limited due to practical difficulties.