Thermal residual stress evaluation based on phase-shift lateral shearing interferometry

An interesting phase-shift lateral shearing interferometry system was proposed to evaluate the thermal residual stress distribution in transparent specimen. The phase-shift interferograms was generated by moving a parallel plane plate. Based on analyzing the fringes deflected by deformation and refractive index change, the stress distribution can be obtained. To verify the validity of the proposed method, a typical experiment was elaborately designed to determine thermal residual stresses of a transparent PMMA plate subjected to the flame of a lighter. The sum of in-plane stress distribution was demonstrated. The experimental data were compared with values measured by digital gradient sensing method. Comparison of the results reveals the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.