The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College

Title

Photoelastic Force Measurements in Granular Materials

Authors

Karen E. Daniels, North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Jonathan E. Kollmer, North Carolina State University at Raleigh
James G. Puckett, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2017

Department 1

Physics

Abstract

Photoelastic techniques are used to make both qualitative and quantitative measurements of the forces within idealized granular materials. The method is based on placing a birefringent granular material between a pair of polarizing filters, so that each region of the material rotates the polarization of light according to the amount of local stress. In this review paper, we summarize the past work using the technique, describe the optics underlying the technique, and illustrate how it can be used to quantitatively determine the vector contact forces between particles in a 2D granular system. We provide a description of software resources available to perform this task, as well as key techniques and resources for building an experimental apparatus.

Comments

Original version online at http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4983049

DOI

10.1063/1.4983049

Recommended Citation

K. E. Daniels, J. E. Kollmer and J. G. Puckett "Photoelastic force measurements in granular materials." Review of Scientific Instruments 88 (2017).