Giovanni Petrucci

Towards RGB photoelasticity: Full-field automated photoelasticity in white light

In this paper a new full-field method for the automatic analysis of isochromatic fringes in white light is presented. The method, named RGB photoelasticity, eliminates the typical drawbacks of the classical approach to photoelasticity in white light which requires a subjective analysis of colors and an experienced analyst to acquire and interpret the results.The proposed method makes it possible to determine retardations uniquely in the range of 0–3 fringe orders. For this purpose the isochromatics are acquired by means of a color video camera and the colors are decomposed in the three primary colors (red, green and blue) and compared to those stored in a calibration array in the system. Furthermore, the influence of various spurious effects on the accuracy of the proposed method is experimentally evaluated.

A review of automated methods for the collection and analysis of photoelastic data

Abstract Photoelasticity is one of the most widely used full-field methods for experimental stress analysis. However, the collection of photoelastic parameters can be a long and tedious process. The advent of automated photoelastic systems has allowed the experimentalists to speed up the rate of analysis and to perform more complex investigations. This paper provides a survey of recent methods of automated photoelasticity developed in the last 20 years, i.e. methods of the fringe centres, half-fringe photoelasticity, phase-stepping photoelasticity, methods based on the Fourier transform, spectral content analysis (SCA) and RGB (red, green, blue) photoelasticity.

Full Field Automatic Evaluation of an Isoclinic Parameter in White Light

In this paper, a technique for full-field evaluation of the isoclinic parameter is presented. It combines the phase-shifting method with true color imaging technology to minimize the interaction between isoclinic and isochromatic fringes. The paper also shows how the proposed technique can be suitably integrated with known methods for evaluating the retardations. Furthermore, a digital algorithm for filtering wrapped phase data obtained by general phase-shifting techniques is presented.

A method for reducing the influence of quarter-wave plate errors in phase stepping photoelasticity

Abstract The phase stepping technique has recently been applied to the automated analysis of photoelastic fringes to determine the isoclinic parameter and the relative retardation. Generally, in these methods the error of quarter-wave plates, due to common manufacturing tolerances, influences the determination of the isoclinic parameter and the fringe order. In this paper a new phase stepping method in which the influence of quarter-wave plate error is null on the isoclinic parameter and negligible on the fringe order is proposed. The theoretical results have been confirmed by experimental tests.

Computer aided photoelasticity by an optimum phase stepping method

In this paper an automated photoelastic method based on the phase stepping technique is described. It provides full-field maps of the isoclinic parameter and the relative retardation. The technique is based on processing six images of a photoelastic specimen acquired using plane and circularly polarized light. The number of acquisitions and the type of polariscope used in this approach have been chosen with the aim at reducing the influence of quarter wave plate errors and obtaining raw photoelastic data in a periodic form suitable for easy applications of automatic unwrapping routines.

A facile method to determine pore size distribution in porous scaffold by using image processing

Image processing permits scientists to investigate morphological properties of three-dimensional structures starting from their bi-dimensional gray-scale representation. In many cases porous structure with complex architecture has to be designed in order to attempt specific properties such in the case of scaffold for tissue engineering. Traditional morphological characterization, like scanning electron microscopy, should be coupled with quantitative information such as pore size distribution (PSD) in order to get a deeper understanding of the influence of the porous structure on tissue regeneration processes and on other related applications, it is remarkable to study a quantitative analysis of porosity and of pores dimension. In this work it was developed as a software able to accomplish the segmentation of images containing pores of any geometry in a semi-automatic way with the aim to measure the PSD. Case study constituted by PLA porous scaffolds with different pore size was adopted. Results indicate that image processing methods well fit the pore size features of PLA scaffolds, overcoming the limits of the more invasive porosimetry techniques.

AUTOMATED PHOTOELASTICITY IN WHITE-LIGHT - INFLUENCE OF QUARTER-WAVE PLATES

Abstract This paper deals with the influence of optical retarders on the isochromatic fringes obtained by automated white light photoelasticity using methods such as those based on spectral content analysis (SCA) and on primary colour (red, green and blue) analysis. In the following the light intensity equations of dark- and light-field polariscopes with both crossed and parallel optical retarders are reviewed. In particular, it is shown that the retardance error of the quarter-wave plates produces an attenuation of the maximum intensity in dark field and an increase of minimum intensity in light field. Experimental evidence of the influence of optical retarders is also shown.

RGB photoelasticity applied to the analysis of membrane residual stress in glass

The measurement of residual stresses is of great relevance in the glass industry. The analysis of residual stress in glass is usually made by photoelastic methods because glass is a photoelastic material. This paper considers the determination of membrane residual stresses in glass plates by automatic digital photoelasticity in white light (RGB photoelasticity). The proposed method is applied to the analysis of membrane residual stresses in some tempered glass. The proposed method can effectively replace manual methods based on the use of white light, which are currently provided by some technical standards.

The influence of the quarter wave plates in automated photoelasticity

During the last decades, several methods have been proposed to automate photoelastic analyses. Some procedures are based on the circularly polarised light by using quarter wave plates. However, quarter wave plates are typically matched for a specific wavelength, and an error is introduced at different wavelengths. The error of quarter wave plates affects the measurement of isochromatic and isoclinic data. In this paper, the influence of the errors of quarter wave plates in some of the most common automated photoelastic methods is reviewed. The errors in the photoelastic data are given and the procedures to reduce, or eliminate, them are also suggested.

Full field automated evaluation of the quarter wave plate retardation by phase stepping technique

Quarter wave plates are optical elements commonly used in photoelasticity to obtain circularly polarized light. They divide the incident light field into two linearly polarized orthogonal components with a phase difference of a quarter of the light wavelength. Due to the tolerance in manufacturing, however, the actual phase shifting produced by the plates is affected by an error, which noticeably influences the photoelastic measurements performed by means of various automated methods. This paper presents a technique, based on the phase stepping method, for the full field automatic evaluation of the quarter wave plate error.