Reinforcing effect of birefringent coatings

Birefringent coatings carry a portion of the load that would otherwise be carried by the structure. Thus, strains at the structure-coating interface are somewhat less than those in an uncoated part. In addition, strain gradients through the coating thickness must be taken into account to determine the surface strains that would be developed in an uncoated part. Correction factors are derived for plane stress, flexure of plates, torsion of shafts and cylindrical pressure vessels, and the case of combined plane and flexural loads is treated. For plane and flexural loading, the correction factors are equally applicable to regions surrounding common geometrical discontinuities.