Applications
By today’s available computational methods, such as the finite element method, stress test calculations are now mainly carried out on the computer. Nevertheless, photoelasticity is a good and rapid method to understand and analyse complicated stress conditions in models.
As such, today the Tiedemann photoelasticity devices are frequently used for material testing along with the quality assurance, for example by adhesive or glass manufacturers and their customers. The quality assurance can check by looking into the polariscope, if automobile windshields, headlights or glass vessels are free of stress or have reached a specific state of stress. In dental technology, for example, the adhesive force of filling material into teeth can be explored.
Spannungsaufbau durch die Aushärtung
Another application is the use in school lessons and university teaching engineers in materials science and design, because photoelasticity is the only method to make stress in components visible. The transparent resin models of birefringent materials are investigated for charges that may arise in practical application. These loaded models are simply placed in the polariscope. The stress distribution in the model is compatible with that in the real component.