Strain Sensitive Surfaces for Aircraft Structural Analysis and Health Monitoring

摘要

A system comprises: a geometric pattern of grooves on a structural component having a first set of grooves having a first groove width; a first lighting source for projecting a first light so as to produce corresponding change in the wavelength of the light reflected from a geometric pattern of the grooves, indicating changes in the first groove width due to a strain caused when a structural component is exposed to environmental conditions, and a diffraction when a first light of a first wavelength corresponding to the first groove width strikes the geometric pattern of the grooves; a detector for detecting the wavelength of the light reflected from the geometric pattern of the grooves when the first lighting source lights the geometric pattern of the grooves; and a processor connected to the detector for receiving the detected wavelength of light from the detector and correlating the detected wavelength of light from the geometric pattern of the grooves to the strain.