Bragg gratings in micro-structured optical fiber as strain sensors for structural health monitoring of fiber-reinforced plastics

摘要

Optical fibers typically only allow strain measurements in the direction along the fiber's axis. We developed an optical fiber sensor that allows measuring transverse strains in fiber-reinforced plastics, when embedded between the reinforcement fibers. Assessing the strain levels in the composite's out-of-plane direction thereby becomes possible with a resolution close to 1 μstrain. Our results have applications in the domain of load monitoring, but also in the fields of production monitoring and structural health monitoring.