Abstract
This paper presents the results of a series of experiments which were conducted to study the feasibility of using the photoelastic method to observe ultrasonic waves in a large plate on quantitative basis. The frequency used was as high as 0.79 MHz. Due to inherent limitations of the power of the ultrasonic driving systems, very low fringe orders were produced. In order to analyze low-order fringes quantitatively, a dynamic compensating system was developed and used.
The photoelastic fringes were recorded with the aid of the dynamic compensator by a still camera with a flashlight source synchronized with the oscillator pulses. The analysis of the photographic record was carried out with the aid of a microdensitometer.
The photoelastic method is found to be feasible for observing ultrasonic waves in transparent media. The attenuation of stress waves was determined. The dynamic compensating system developed in this investigation was found to be satisfactory.
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L. S. Snyders was Graduate Student at the University of Tennessee and was associated with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the time the experiment was performed; he is presently with the South African Atomic Energy Board.
Research was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and sponsored by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission under contract with Union Carbide Corporation.
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Pih, H., Snyders, L.S. Photoelastic studies of ultrasonic waves in a large plate. Experimental Mechanics 9, 186–192 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02326568
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02326568