DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPARENT COMPOSITE FOR PHOTOELASTIC STUDIES

Transparent glass/polyester composites have been fabricated by blendin g polyester matrix with different percentages of styrene to match its refractive index to that of the glass fiber. Composites containing 30 percent of styrene in the polyester matrix results in an overall trans mission ratio of 87%. The model material developed shows excellent pho toelastic properties. The good optical response is attributed to the b etter matching of refractive indices of the constituent materials. The stresses along the diameter perpendicular to the loading direction ar e obtained using photo-ortho-elasticity and are found to agree fairly well with the results obtained from finite element analysis.