Design of Tabletop Automated Plane Polariscope for Digital Photoelastic Measurements

Digital photoelasticity, a non-contact, non-destructive and optical technique is the most widely accepted methodology for stress measurement. Phase shifting technique (PST) algorithms serve the purpose of evaluating the isochromatic and isoclinic data with more accuracy. However, manual operations of the polariscope for PST is tedious and time-consuming. Further, manual operations confront with high chances of errors during calculations due to the manual rotation of the optical elements. This work aims towards overcoming these limitations by automating the rotational procedure of the plane polariscope-based optical configurations. A compact, table-top optical box design for analyser and polariser is proposed in this work. The plane polariscope-based optical modules can be effectively used for automating the plane polariscope-based phase shifting procedures and thereby enhancing the scope of digital photoelastic stress measurements.