EFFECT OF EMBEDDED FIBER OPTIC SENSOR LENGTH AND ORIENTATION ON SIGNAL PROPERTIES DURING FATIGUE LOADING

摘要

Currently, composite structures are built with high saftey factors to account for constituent material variability and lack of manufacturing repeatability amoung other factors. They remain in service for a predetermined amount of time and discarded once they pass their predicted lifespan. These practices result in overbuilt/overweight structures that are discarded before they need to be. To overcome this situation embedded fiber optic sensors have been investigated for structural health monitoring. A type of fiber optic sensor called a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) can be embedded within the composite material during manufacture and used to monitor the fatigue loads induced in the structure. This gives the operator real time knowledge of the condition of the structure during operation allowing them to be built with a lower safety factor and operated until the must be replaced.