Photo-Elastic Determination of Stress

The purpose of this paper is to present an up-to-date picture of photo-elastic analysis, to discuss its- applications and limitations, to show the relationship that it bears to other methods of stress investigations, and particularly to bring out the relationship that it should, and must, bear to the mechanical and structural designer and his problems. This is a timely subject, since the ever-growing acceptance of indeterminate structures, and the more expensive alloys makes it imperative to the designer that he avail himself of every possible means of refined stress analysis. Since this paper deals with the subject of photo-elasticity, there is naturally considerable space devoted to standard methods, model materials, and technique.