Holographic photoelasticity: Determination of absolute retardations by a single hologram

In this paper, real-time holographic interferometry is applied to determine the absolute-retardation fringes in the photoelastic analysis of plane models. The method requires only one hologram recorded with the model unloaded. In the reconstruction process, the mcdel is loaded and the polarizers on the reference and object beams are rotated through the same angle. At the points of the model where the polarization direction is parallel to one of the principal stresses, only the corresponding family of absolute retardations is obtained. The technique is demonstrated experimentally using a deep beam centrally loaded.