Visualization of Stress Interaction in Polymer Gels and Liquid Polymers by High-Speed Photoelastic Technique

Abstract

For understanding the stroke mechanisms relating to hemodynamics, it is necessary to study the stress interaction between the wall of the vessel and the flowing blood. However, it is very challenging to perform CFD for fluid-structure interactions with complex structural deformations, thus there is a high demand for the experimental visualization of the unsteady stress field in the medical field. In this study, we developed a high-speed photoelasticity of polymer gels and liquid polymers for understanding stress interaction between blood vessels and blood. This method using a high-speed polarization camera measures the polarization state (birefringence in proportion to stress) of polymer gel and liquid polymer. We confirmed that the phase retardation, which is the spatially integrated value of birefringence, is correlated with the principal stress difference. Besides, we also attempted the measurement of the retardation field of polymer gels and liquid polymers under pulsating flow conditions.