Structural health monitoring of fiber reinforced and sandwich composites with embedded fiber Bragg grating sensors

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606649 (Table of Contents)

This study deals with the response of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded into fiber reinforced and sandwich composites subjected to different loading conditions and evaluates the feasibility and performance of FBG sensors for structural health monitoring. To this end, three different works were conducted. The first part investigates the effect of sensor placement into fiber reinforced composites on the acquired signal quality during the fatigue loading. In the second part, the performance and behavior of FBG sensors embedded inside fiber reinforced composites are studied under constant, high strain fatigue loading conditions in order to assess the mechanical energy, strain distribution and evolution along the specimen. In the context of the second section, the evolution of temperature in composites specimen due to autogenous heating is monitored employing a set of thermocouples. In the final part, three different failure modes of foam cored sandwich composites, namely, facing indentation, compressive facing and core shear failure are monitored by using spectrum and wavelength information of embedded FBG sensors.