Colour adaptation in three fringe photoelasticity

Three fringe photoelasticity (TFP) can give the total fringe order from a single colour isochromatic fringe field by suitably comparing the colour with a calibration specimen. The fringe order evaluation can be erroneous when the materials for the calibration specimen and the application specimen are different. This is because of the colour variation between the two materials. This is conventionally handled by preparing individual calibration tables for each application. A new methodology to tune the calibration table obtained for a single material to accommodate the tint variation in TFP is proposed for the use of different specimen materials. Discontinuities in fringe order variation are smoothed using the refined TFP (RTFP) procedure. The elegance of the new methodology for solving a multi-material system is bought out by solving the problem of a bi-material Brazilian disc. The results obtained are compared with the phase shifting technique.