APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF AN AXISYMMETRIC FIELD OF STRESS BY A TRANSMITTED-LIGHT, FLOW-BIREFRINGENCE TECHNIQUE.

A method was devised for analyzing approximately an axisymmetric field of stress, based on the assumptions that the angle of extinction obtained from the isoclinic pattern was approximately equal to the inclination of the principal axis of a refractive-index ellipsoid, and that the phase difference is dependent only on the local values of the double refractive index. An approximate equation was used to find the local values of the primary double-refractive index. The method was applied to the analysis of the stresses associated with flow around a sphere as an example with axisymmetry. 8 Refs.