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Optics and ¸asers in Engineering 29 (1998) 423—435

( 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved


Printed in Northern Ireland
0143—8166/98/$19.00
PII: S0143–8166(97)00107–3

Photoelastic Analysis with a Single Tricolor Image

S. Yoneyama,a M. Shimizu,a J. Gotohb & M. Takashia


a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University,
6-16-1 Chitosedai, Setagaya, Tokyo 157, Japan
b Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama 240, Japan

(Received 22 August 1997; accepted 27 November 1997)

ABS¹RAC¹

A new approach to simultaneous measurement of isochromatics and isoclinics


from a single image using a tricolor light, called as the tricolor photoelastic
technique, is proposed in order to enable and facilitate the analysis of time
varying phenomena. Not only an apparatus of experiment but the whole
analysis system and procedure are developed. ºsing a color digital camera
and a tricolor light source under linear polarization, fringe order and the
principal direction of birefringence are obtained from a piece of color image
data by a single shot using the method proposed. It is emphasized that this
method can be applicable to time varying phenomena in which good repeata-
bility and reproducibility of experiments are not expected, since multiple
exposures are not necessary for sufficient data acquisition in the completion
of stress analysis. ( 1998 Elsevier Science ¸td. All rights reserved.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recently, several image processing techniques and automated polariscope


systems for the analysis of photoelastic fringe patterns using a monochromatic
light have been proposed and developed.1~7 The half-fringe photoelasticity,1
the fringe center extraction technique,2 the phase shifting methods3~5 and
Fourier transform methods6,7 are all fairly successful in their own way. One of
these methods, for example, the phase shifting method has advantages in the
reduction of errors induced by not only the poor accuracy of wave plates but
the difference of loading conditions in the measurements of both isochro-
matics and isoclinics. In addition, white light photoelastic techniques, such as
the spectral-content analysis,8~10 have also been proposed, in which photo-
elastic fringe patterns can be analyzed in detail using spectral scanners and
423
424 S. Yoneyama et al.

a computer. Ajovalasit et al.11,12 and Ramesh et al.13 have proposed different


types of white light photoelastic method using the data base searching tech-
nique. The objectives of these photoelastic studies mentioned above are placed
in automatization of ordering of isochromatic fringes and improvement of
accuracy. In these methods, isoclinic parameters cannot be determined, or
multiple image data are required to complete the analysis of isochromatics
and isoclinics. For the purpose of analyzing problems in which fringe pattern
varies with time, such as the case of photoviscoelastic analysis14,15 under
proportional or non-proportional condition, it is inevitable to determine
fringe order and the principal direction of birefringence simultaneously from
a photoelastic image data obtained by a single shot. In order to overcome this
type of difficulties, the authors16 have proposed a concept for the calculation
of principal stress difference and its direction with lights of three different
wavelengths, then the validity of the concept have been investigated applying
the method to three images obtained by use of different wavelengths.
The location of isochromatics is dependent on the wavelength of a incident
light but that of isoclinics is independent. Using a compound incident light
which has only three different wavelengths, a color digital camera having
independent sensors corresponding to red, green and blue lights, respectively,
can record three monochromatic images simultaneously.
In this paper, theory of the tricolor photoelastic technique, which is a new
method for determining fringe order and the principal direction of birefrin-
gence from a single color image, is described. Also, the experimental systems,
including a tricolor light source, are newly developed. It is emphasized that
this method can be applicable to time-varying phenomena in which good
repeatability and reproducibility of experiments are not expected, since mul-
tiple exposures are not necessary for acquisition of sufficient data in the
completion of stress analysis.

2 THEORY OF THE TRICOLOR PHOTOELASTIC TECHNIQUE

2.1 Determination of fringe order

Consider a transparent and birefringent specimen placed in a plane polariscope


of the dark field with a monochromatic light. When a specimen is stressed, the
emerging light intensity of photoelastic image at a point can be expressed as
I"I sin2 Nn sin2 2(u!h)#Q (1)
0
where I is the maximum value of the emerging light intensity, N, denotes
0
isochromatic fringe order, u, principal direction of birefringence, h, polariz-
ation angle and Q, background intensity, respectively.
Photoelastic analysis with a single tricolor image 425

If three wavelengths j "j , j and j are adopted, eqn (1) is rewritten as


i R G B
the following equation taking the transmittance of all optical elements and the
spectral sensitivity of a camera used into account:
I "S sin2 N n sin2 2(u!h)#Q (i"R, G, B) (2)
i i i i
where S is the product of light source emittance, the transmittance of over all
i
optical system adopted and the spectral sensitivity of a camera used.
Equation (2) can be separated into two parts, one is dependent on the
wavelength of incident light and another dependent on polarization angle,
respectively. Thus, eqn (2) can be rewritten as
I "X ½#Q (3)
i i i
where
X "S sin2 N n (4)
i i i
½"sin2 2(u!h) (5)
Assuming background intensities Q are independent of the wavelength of
i
light used, we have the following equation from eqn (3).
I !I "(X !X )½(i, j"R, G, B) (6)
i j i j
Eliminating ½, we have
(I !I )X #(I !I )X #(I !I )X "0 (7)
G B R B R G R G B
Using eqns (5) and (6), and taking the dispersion of birefringence17 into
account, eqn (7) is rewritten as
(I !I )S sin2 CN n#(I !I )S sin2 N n#(I !I )S sin2 DN n"0
G B R G B R G G R G B G
(8)
where C and D are defined as
j C
C" G R
j C
R G
j C
D" G B
j C
B G
Here, C , C and C are stress-optic coefficients for each wavelength. Equa-
R G B
tion (8) is a non-linear equation with respect to the fringe order N . Thus, the
G
fringe order N could be obtained by solving eqn (8), numerically. In the rare
G
cases of ½"0 (a point on isoclinic line) and/or X "X "X (a point at
R G B
which three grey levels I , I , I have a same value), eqn (8) do not give any
R G B
solution. In these cases, however, an approximation can be performed by
adopting a certain type of interpolation techniques.
426 S. Yoneyama et al.

2.2 Determination of the principal direction of birefringence

After determining the fringe order, the principal direction of birefringence can
be calculated as follows. Summing all equations up in eqn (6), the following
equation is obtained.
DI !I D#DI !I D#DI !I D"(DX !X D#DX !X D
G B B R R G G B B R
#DX !X D)½ (9)
R G
Then, we have
DI !I D#DI !I D#DI !I D
½"sin2 2(u!h)" G B B R R G (10)
DX !X D#DX !X D#DX !X D
G B B R R G
Thus, we have the principal direction of birefringence as
u"h#1 cos~1(1!2½) (11)
4
at every point where X OX OX . Here cos~1 denotes the principal value
R G B
of the inverse cosine function. In the case of ½"0, the principal direction of
birefringence is obtained as
u"h, h$1 n, h$n (12)
2
2.3 Procedure for analysis

In order to determine the fringe order and the principal direction of birefrin-
gence, the non-linear equation described in eqn (8) must be solved nu-
merically. The procedure of analysis is briefly summarized as follows.
1. Select an initial value and an initial point where the fringe order can be
determined on a photoelastic image data.
2. Calculate the fringe order at an initial point with eqn (8).
3. Repeat the above procedures 1 and 2 at the next adjacent point using the
results of the previous point as the case of initial point, to cover the whole
field of image.
4. Calculate the principal direction of birefringence by eqn (11) using the
results of fringe order by eqn (8).

3 APPARATUS FOR THE TRICOLOR PHOTOELASTICITY

In order to utilize the method proposed to practical photoelastic experiment


and to perform analysis from an image obtained by a single shot, three
Photoelastic analysis with a single tricolor image 427

monochromatic images by respective wavelengths must be recorded simul-


taneously as a color image data. However, an image sensor built in an ordinary
color digital camera has spectral sensitivities over wide band of wavelength.
To meet with our purpose, a light source which contains only narrow bands of
three different wavelengths has to be constructed. In this study, a tricolor light
source which emits three monochromatic lights of wavelength j"436, 546
and 619 nm simultaneously has been newly developed as shown in Fig. 1.
A light emitted from a mercury lamp passes through a dichroic mirror, then
the light is separated into blue and green lights. A red light is extracted from
a halogen lamp. These three lights pass through interference filters. Then,
three monochromatic lights are compounded by use of dichroic mirrors,
again. Figure 2 shows the spectral distribution of the tricolor light source
measured by a spectrum analyzer. The half band widths of spectrums are
about 3—5 nm irrespective to wavelength. The light intensity of the three
wavelengths are adjusted by use of ND filters taking the spectral sensitivity of
the camera into account.
An experimental setup including the tricolor light source is shown in Fig. 3.
This setup is composed of the following devices.
1. A set of plane polariscope.
2. A color hi-vision camera.
3. A tricolor light source.
4. A digitizer (1920]1035]24 bit).

Fig. 1. Construction of a tricolor light source.


428 S. Yoneyama et al.

Fig. 2. Spectral distribution of the light source emittance.

Fig. 3. Apparatus for the tricolor photoelasticity.

5. A computer and a data storage.


6. A color monitor.

The light emitted from the tricolor light source passes through a plane
polarizer, a birefringent specimen and an analyzer. Then, a color photoelastic
Photoelastic analysis with a single tricolor image 429

fringe pattern is recorded by a color hi-vision camera as a 24-bit image data of


1024]1024 pixels and 256 gray levels of brightness for each color.

4 MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION

In any photoelastic analysis, the optical characterization of a model material


is very important for the quantitative analysis and evaluation of stresses. The
fundamental theory of photoelasticity says that fringe order is inversely
proportional to the wavelength of a incident light, that is, stress-optic coef-
ficient should be constant regardless of the wavelength of the light used.
However, stress-optic coefficient is, in fact, a function of wavelength because of
the dispersion of birefringence.17 Since the light source containing three
wavelengths is used here, the calibration is inevitable for all wavelengths
j"436, 546 and 619 nm to determine the coefficients C and D in eqn (8).
Adopting the standard technique,18 calibration for the material is performed
on a circular disk specimen made of the same material as a test specimen
(epoxy resin).
A circular disk of 25 mm in radius and 6 mm in thickness is subjected to
a load of 521 N in compression. Figure 4 shows the distribution of theoreti-
cally constructed principal stress difference and the gray levels of isochromatic
fringes obtained for wavelengths j"436, 546 and 619 nm across the center of
the circular disk specimen. Here, the maxima and minima of gray levels
correspond to bright and dark fringes. From these data, values of stress-optic
coefficients of each wavelength are obtained as shown in Table 1. Difference of

Fig. 4. Gray levels of R-, G- and B-image, and theoretically constructed principal stress difference across
the diameter of a circular disk specimen perpendicular to the direction of laod.
430 S. Yoneyama et al.

TABLE 1
Stress-optic Coefficient

Wavelength Stress-optic coefficient


(nm) (m2/N)

619 C "51)4]10~12
R
546 C "51)6]10~12
G
436 C "58)2]10~12
B

the stress-optic coefficient among three wavelengths due to the dispersion of


birefringence can be recognized.

5 ANALYSIS USING THE TRICOLOR PHOTOELASTIC


TECHNIQUE

The tricolor photoelasticity was applied to a circular disk to evaluate the


usefulness of the method and the apparatus.
A circular disk of 25 mm in radius and 6 mm in thickness was subjected to
a diametric compression load of 261 N. Figure 5(a) shows color (24-bit) image
data of the plane polarized fringe pattern of the disk specimen under the
polarization angle of 15°. Here, any polarization angle can be selected for
observation of fringe pattern avoiding superposition of isoclinic line and
a point on which attention is paid because this method can calculate the fringe
order and the principal direction of birefringence except points just on
isoclinic line and at which the values of gray levels I , I and I coincide each
R G B
other. Fringe patterns corresponding to each wavelength are shown in
Fig. 5(b) and (c) for comparison. Images in Fig. 5(b) and (c) have 256 gray
levels (8-bit) and are separated from the color image shown in Fig. 5(a). Thus,
a color image data can be easily separated into three monochromatic images
corresponding to each wavelength using the apparatus developed. The differ-
ence between the isochromatic fringe patterns due to wavelength difference
are easily observed.
The A—B line shown in Fig. 5(a) is selected as a sample case of analysis.
Before applying the method proposed to actual experimental data, a theoreti-
cally constructed data is examined to confirm the validity of the method and
to compare the calculated results with that from experimental data. Figure
6(a) shows the gray level distributions along the A—B line of a disk generated
by a computer. Fringe order 2, which is very clear and easy to recognize, is
selected as the initial value at a selected point. Then, adopting the bisection
method, the non-linear eqn (8) is solved numerically. Since the fringe order at
Photoelastic analysis with a single tricolor image 431

Fig. 5. Photoelastic image data of a circular disk under the polarization angle 15 deg: (a) 24-bit image, (b)
R-image, (c) G-image and (d) B-image.

the location superimposed by the isoclinics cannot be calculated by the


method proposed, the values of the fringe order around the isoclinics are
interpolated using the B-spline function. The calculated results of the fringe
order along the A—B line are shown in Fig. 6(b), and the principal direction of
birefringence in Fig. 6(c). In these figures, the values obtained by the theory of
elasticity are also plotted for comparison. The calculated result of the fringe
order and the principal direction of birefringence from the theoretically
constructed gray levels show very good agreement with theory itself except
near the edge of the disk.
Figure 7 shows gray levels of fringes along the same line obtained by
experiment, namely calculated results of the fringe order and the principal
direction of birefringence. In Fig. 7(a), the values of fringe order around the
edge of the disk include severe scatter and errors. This phenomenon is also
observed in Fig. 6(b). Around the edge of the disk, because the values of fringe
432 S. Yoneyama et al.

Fig. 6. (a) Theoretically constructed gray levels of R-, G- and B-image, and the calculated results of (b) the
fringe order and (c) the principal direction of birefringence.

order are decreasing and is close to zero order, the differences of gray levels of
each wavelength I "I !I described in eqn (7) are diminishing. So, relative
ij i j
errors of the differences of gray levels increase because the grey levels of image
data are discrete digital data. It is recognized that the difficulty in the
Photoelastic analysis with a single tricolor image 433

calculation of the fringe order arises in a range of fringe order corresponding


to green light less than about 0.3. In Fig. 7(b), because the calculated results
of fringe order is used again to determine the principal direction of birefrin-
gence, the results of principal direction are suffered from additional

Fig. 7. (a) Experimentally obtained gray levels of R-, G- and B-image, and the calculated results of (b) the
fringe order and (c) the principal direction of birefringence along the A—B line.
434 S. Yoneyama et al.

errors. Accuracy of the calculation in proposed method should be improved


in future work.

6 CONCLUDING REMARKS

For the purpose of analyzing photoelastic fringe pattern from a single image,
the tricolor photoelastic technique has been proposed and an experimental
apparatus has been developed. Also, the effectiveness of the proposed method
and the apparatus was demonstrated. Not only fringe order but the principal
direction of birefringence were obtained from three different monochromatic
image data obtained by a single shot as a color image data. However, since
difficulties in the analysis are still remained in the fringe order below 0)3 and
the following calculation of the principal direction of birefringence, it is
necessary to introduce various improvements into the method.
In conclusion, it is emphasized that this method can be applicable to
time-varying phenomena in which good repeatability and reproducibility of
experiments are not expected, since multiple exposures are not necessary for
acquisition of sufficient data in the completion of stress analysis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors appreciate the financial support of the Center for Science and
Engineering Research Institute of Aoyama Gakuin University. Our thanks
are extended to Prof. S. Mawatari for his helpful discussion and to Ms. Y.
Tagaya for her help in the development of the apparatus.

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