Measurement of flow birefringence induced by the shear components along the optical axis using a parallel-plate-type rheometer

The present study investigated the flow birefringence induced by shear components along a camera’s optical axis, which has been neglected in conventional theories of photoelastic measurements. Measurements were conducted for a wide range of shear rates from a direction perpendicular to the shear using a high-speed polarization camera and a parallel-plate-type rheometer. The measurement results obtained from a fluid with low viscoelasticity, specifically a dilute suspension of cellulose nanocrystals, showed that the birefringence increases monotonically as the stress components along the camera’s optical axis increase. It was also found that the birefringence showed a power law with respect to the shear rate. This letter reports a key fact required for polarization measurements of shear rate (shear stress) in three-dimensional flows.