Abstract: Based on a briefintroduction of the principle of molecular luminescence, a newmethod of luminescent photoelastic coating (LPC) is presented, andits basic measurement principle, coating configurations,components of the system and experimental process are elaborated.By using aerosol techniques and appending fluorescent dyes tophotoelastic coating, the LPC method has the following advantagesover the traditional reflective photoelastic coatings (RPC)：(1)The implementation of LPC is much easier and quicker than that ofRPC, especially for specimens having complex geometries；(2) Theluminescent coating lead to less substrate reinforcement effectthan the reflective coating；(3) LPC provides higher spatialresolution；(4) LPC makes data post-processing easier byeliminating the need for fringe counting and phase unwrapping；(5) The emission of luminescent coatings is diffusive one whichleads to higher relative intensity when measurements are carriedout on oblique surfaces. Finally, the future research direction ofthis new experimental method is suggested together with itspotential applications to the product design cycle in conjunctionwith Finite Element Analysis (FEA).