Damage assessment of composite laminate by using fiber optic AE sensor based on fused-tapered coupler

摘要

Damage inspection is very important for safe and reliable use of composite materials. Some non-destructive evaluation methods have been used to monitor the damage of composite. It is necessary to develop a novel fiber optic sensor and use it to monitor the damage of composite materials. This paper proposes to make an optic fiber acoustic emission (AE) sensor base on fused-taper fiber optic coupler with low price and high sensitivity, and to monitor the damage of composite materials. To prove the sensitivity of this sensor, Pencil-break test was done. To investigate the failure mode of composite materials, tensile experiment of composite laminate was also carried out. Experiment got lots of acoustic emission data under different tensile stage, Relationship of AE waveform and failure mode was established. It was found that fiber optic AE sensor with high sensitivity was successfully developed, and failure mode of composite materials was identified. This kind of research encourages the belief that the sensor will be used to structural health monitoring of larger composite structures.