A stress-optic law for photoelastic analysis of orthotropic composites

The feasibility for utilizing transparent filament-resin composites for photoelastic stress analysis was investigated. Satisfactory photoelastic stress patterns were demonstrated in simple models with undirectional and bidirectional fiber orientations. A stress-optic law was formulated, based on the concept that the birefringence components contributed by each component of plane stress are combined according to a Mohr circle of birefringence. Applying this concept, the difference of the physical and optical principal directions was accounted for, and a general method of photoelastic solution for the plane-stress problem in orthotropic sheets was developed. The method of analysis is little more complex than the well-known procedures for isotropic materials, but at least three experimental measurements are required to characterize the optical response of the material to plane stress. Partial confirmation of the proposed stress-optic law was obtained by comparison of the theory to limited experimental data obtained in uniaxial-stress samples. It remains to establish a more positive verification by experiments in a variety of biaxial-stress conditions.