Recent advances in photoelastic applications

Photoelasticity is one of the oldest methods for experimental stress analysis, but has been overshadowed by the Finite Element Method for engineering applications over the past two/three decades. However, certain new and novel developments and applications have revived the use of photoelasticity. Among them are image processing for fringe analysis, poiarimetric fiber optic sensors, infra-red photoelasticity, low cost dynamic photoelasticity and photoelastic applications in stereolithography. This paper will, after a brief introduction to photoelasticity, highlight some of these advances and developments.