Development of Photogrammetric Methods of Stress Analysis and Quality Control

A photogrammetric method of stress analysis has been developed to test thin, nonstandard windows designed for hydrogen absorbers, major components of a muon cooling channel. The purpose of the absorber window tests is to demonstrate an understanding of the window behavior and strength as a function of applied pressure. This is done by comparing the deformation of the window, measured via photogrammetry, to the deformation predicted by finite element analysis (FEA). FEA analyses indicate a strong sensitivity of strain to the window thickness. Photogrammetric methods were chosen to measure the thickness of the window, thus providing data that are more accurate to the FEA. This, plus improvements made in hardware and testing procedures, resulted in a precision of 5μm in all dimensions and substantial agreement with FEA predictions.