Fiber-Optic-Based Quality Control of Aerospace CFRP Structures

摘要

This study proposes an “advanced smart quality assurance” concept to monitor thecuring process of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and assure its cured quality.The authors embedded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) optical sensors in the inter-laminartoughening layer of aerospace-grade CFRP laminates to monitor the local residualstrain depending on applied cure pressure. Inter-laminar fracture toughness was thenevaluated from double cantilever beam (DCB) tests. A good correlation was obtainedbetween the residual strain value and the fracture toughness, demonstrating that theproposed CFRP quality assurance method is effective to manufacture highly-reliableaerospace CFRP structures.