Determination of the stress distribution in assemblies of photoelastic particles

An optical measuring method and a calculation procedure for determining the distribution of the stress tensor in a plane-strained three-dimensional assembly of random-shaped photoelastic particles are described. The stress tensor at an arbitrary point of the model is determined by an integration procedure, based on the equations of equilibrium of stresses. The distribution of the principal-stress direction and the relative principal-stress difference and at least two normal stresses in a plane have to be known to perform the integration. The distribution of the principal-stress directions and their difference are measured optically by scanning the model with an optical filter system with a single rotating polarizer.