| Abstract: | Determination of stress intensity factors using shadow optical method of caustics attracts increasing attention. However, the reliability and ranges of applicability of this method are seldom discussed. This paper presents such an analysis regarding the reliability and predictive power of caustic method in fracture mechanics. This analysis is performed according to the accepted methodology of testing any analytical, numerical, or experimental procedure, namely by testing its theoretical bases. The following four basic assumptions of the shadow optical method of caustics in fracture mechanics, and their consequences, are analyzed: assumption of a generalized plane stress state near crack tip; assumption that the radiant energy used to produce shadow images propagates rectilinearly inside a stressed body; assumption that the light velocity inside a stressed body depends only on stress components in planes normal to wave normals; assumption that there is no alteration in state of polarization of radiation impinging upon a stressed plate at oblique incidence.The first two basic assumptions are tested using results obtained by means of three analytical-experimental procedures, namely isodynes, gradient index method, and classical strain gages. It is known that the inaccuracies of the fourth assumption are within the noise level only when the angles of incidence are small.It is shown that the magnitudes of the effects caused by the geometric lens effect and the gradient index lens effect are comparable, and that the stress states near crack tips and bottoms of notches, which produce the geometric lens effect, are clearly three-dimensional.It is also indicated that the gradient index lens effect is caused jointly by the stress/strain-induced alteration of the optical path and by the bending of the light path caused by strain gradient.Obtained empirical evidence shows the existence of a particular relationship between the observed gradient index lens effect and the order of singularity in a particular singular solution of linear fracture mechanics, with the exception of the vicinity of the crack tip where singularities are inadmissible. |
