Determination of stress intensity factors for an interfacial crack in a bi-material by digital photoelasticity

The main sources of error in the determination of stress intensity factors (SIFs) for an interface crack in a bi-material by conventional photoelasticity are the measurement of the positional co-ordinates of the data point and the fringe order. In the present work, use of two digital photoelasticity methods for collecting these data is discussed. SIFs are evaluated using constant radius method and a least squares approach based on the singular stress field equation. The need for developing a multi-parameter stress field solution for evaluating SIF is highlighted.