Papers by Keyword: Fibre Bragg Grating

Abstract: During the curing cycle, the residual stress has influence on cure-induced deformation for carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) laminates, which is highly susceptible to the ply design. Therefore, the change laws of strain and the effect of residual stress in CFRP laminates after curing, which is of great significance to ply design, were cleared by using the combining pattern of thermocouple and fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. For the FBG sensors embedded with different directions in lay-up CFRP laminates, the temperature and strain in different directions of composite laminates were obtained in real-time. Monitoring results show that compared with strain in 45° direction, the carbon fibers (CF) act stronger to inhibit strain in 0° direction and weaker to inhibit strain in 90° direction of resin. After curing, the residual strain in 0° direction is tensile strain, and the residual strain in 45° direction and 90° direction are compressive strain. Meanwhile the value of residual strain in 90° direction is greater than that in 45° direction.

Abstract: Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are frequently being used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of aerospace structures. One of the most important advantages of using FBG sensors is that it is possible to embed them into composites. In this paper, manufacturing methods of composite specimens with embedded FBG sensors are given. To avoid stress concentrations at ingress/egress regions of fibre optic wires, PTFE (Teflon) tubes were used during manufacturing. Moreover, FBG connectors melt at high curing temperatures. Therefore, those connectors were cut and after manufacturing, these connectors were spliced back to the FBG sensors. Embedded FBG’s were then checked and the correct wavelength data were taken. All the sensors were observed as intact and ready for bending tests. Procedure for bending tests is also explained including applied loads, boundary conditions, test setup and the peripheral equipment. Results of bending tests show that the system is an appropriate one for SHM purposes.