Evaluation of light source and sensor combinations based on Fourier analysis of digital photoelasticity images.

The evaluation of the stress field based on digital photoelasticity is of interest in many engineering fields because of the full-field and non-destructive capabilities of this optical technique. Regardless of the approach used, reconstructing the stress field using photoelasticity involves processing information encoded in images with fringe patterns. The visual information in these images depends on the interaction between the light source and the sensor used to acquire or generate such images. In this work, a new descriptor is presented to quantify the effect of the light source - sensor interaction, on the quality of the visual information available in photoelastic fringe patterns, and on the ability to resolve higher fringe orders in the stress field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]