Measurement of 3-D stress distribution by a scattered-light method using depolarized incident light

A scattered-light method using depolarized incident light is used for nondestructive measurement of 3-D stress distribution. In this method, scattered light on the plane of the incident light sheet in the interior of photoelastic model is observed from the direction perpendicular to the plane. By optical slicing of the model with such a light sheet the stress distribution can be determined in each slice. Experiments for the case of a frozen stress sphere model under diametral compression are made to show the usefulness of the proposed method.