Shearography: A New Optical Method for Nondestructive Evaluation of Tires

Shearography, a new means of nondestructive testing, has been presented. This paper merely gives some preliminary exploration of shearography for non-destructive testing of tires. Nondestructive testing by shearography is based on the comparison of two states of strain in tires. Ideally, it is desirable to impose stresses similar to those found in service and in an actual malfunction. Therefore, methods of stressing more realistic than the present method of stressing by partial vacuum should be explored. It is believed that only the surface of the potential of shearography has been scratched. In fact, shearography can be used to evaluate the integrity of virtually any structural components, built of any materials—plastics, rubber, metals, composite materials, etc. The full capability of shearography still awaits to be explored.