Abstract
The method of photoelasticity allows one to obtain principal stress differences and principal stress directions in a photoelastic model. In the classical approach, the photoelastic parameters are measured manually point by point. This is time consuming and requires skill in the identification and measurement of photoelastic data. Fringe phase shifting method has been recently developed and widely used to measure and analyze fringe data in photo-mechanics. This paper presents the test results of photoelastic fringe phase shifting method for the stress analysis of a curved beam plate. The technique used here requires four phase stepped photoelastic images obtained from a circular polariscope by rotating the analyzer at 0˚, 45˚, 90˚ and 135˚. Experimental results are compared with those of ANSYS and calculated by the simple beam theory. Good agreement among the results can be observed.