Stress separation in the photoelastic study of centrifugal stresses

This technical note refers to the problem of stress separation in the photoelastic analysis of plane models under centrifugal stresses. Two methods are described in order to determine the sum of principal stresses. These methods, which are based on the compatibility equation, reduce the determination of the sum of principal stresses to the solution of a Laplace's or Poisson's equations. As an example of application, the separation of stresses in a rotating disk with two eccentric holes is shown and comparison with the stresses obtained by using the shear-difference method is made.