Assessment of the Fibre Volume Distribution around Optical Fibres

摘要

The disturbance of embedded optical fibers on fiber distribution in carbon fiberreinforced plastics is addressed. Results for a number of configurations in terms of the variation of fiber volume content around optical fibers in laminates are presented. The width of the wedge shaped matrix pocket, which occurs when the angle between the optical fiber and adjacent plies differ, was determined for different configurations. The results showed that a region with low fiber volume content appeared extending out from the optical fiber despite the same orientation of optical fiber and the surrounding carbon fibers in the adjacent plies. The size of the region was affected by the direction: namely, the region was greater in the horizontal than in vertical direction. Besides different coating materials, neither diameter of optical fiber, its location in the laminate, nor type of laminate had any significant effect on the distribution of the fiber volume content. The smallest region was detected for the polyimide coated optical fiber with the stiffest coating tested. Only the angle between the optical fiber and the adjacent carbon fiber orientation did contribute to the width of the matrix pocket. The largest matrix pockets were observed when the optical fiber was oriented perpendicular to the surrounding carbon fibers. Even for fairly large variation of the optical fiber diameters, the width of the matrix pocket was almost similar.