Proof of Concept of Impact Detection in Composites Using Fiber Bragg Grating Arrays

Impact detection in aeronautical structures allows predicting their future reliability and performance. An impact can produce microscopic fissures that could evolve into fractures or even the total collapse of the structure, so it is important to know the location and severity of each impact. For this purpose, optical fibers with Bragg gratings are used to analyze each impact and the vibrations generated by them. In this paper it is proven that optical fibers with Bragg gratings can be used to detect impacts, and also that a high-frequency interrogator is necessary to collect valuable information about the impacts. The use of two interrogators constitutes the main novelty of this paper.

Fiber Bragg Gratings, IT Techniques and Strain Gauge Validation for Strain Calculation on Aged Metal Specimens

This paper studies the feasibility of calculating strains in aged F114 steel specimens with Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors and infrared thermography (IT) techniques. Two specimens have been conditioned under extreme temperature and relative humidity conditions making comparative tests of stress before and after aging using different adhesives. Moreover, a comparison has been made with IT tecniques and conventional methods for calculating stresses in F114 steel. Implementation of Structural Health Monitoring techniques on real aircraft during their life cycle requires a study of the behaviour of FBG sensors and their wiring under real conditions, before using them for a long time. To simulate aging, specimens were stored in a climate chamber at 70 degrees C and 90% RH for 60 days. This study is framed within the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Non Destructuve Evaluation (NDE) research lines, integrated into the avionics area maintained by the Aeronautical Technologies Centre (CTA) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Influence of Humidity on Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

We demonstrate the influence of the relative humidity (RH) on the wavelength of fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGS), performing tests with five FBGS at different humidity and temperature conditions. These tests were performed in a climate chamber whose RH changes according to a scheduled profile from 30% to 90%, in steps of 10%. These profiles were repeated for a wide range of temperatures from to , in steps of . Two different types of instrumentation methods have been tested, spot welding and epoxy bonding, in two different materials, steel and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). We discuss the results for each type of sensor and instrumentation method by analyzing the linearity of the Bragg wavelength with RH and temperature.

Femtosecond laser-induced damage in reflector

We have investigated the damage for ZrO2/SiO2 800 nm 45 degrees high-reflection mirror with femtosecond pulses. The damage morphologies and the evolution of ablation crater depths with laser fluences are dramatically different from that with pulse longer than a few tens of picoseconds. The ablation in multilayers occurs layer by layer, and not continuously as in the case of bulk single crystalline or amorphous materials. The weak point in damage is the interface between two layers. We also report its single-short damage thresholds for pulse durations ranging from 50 to 900 fs, which departs from the diffusion-dominated tau(1/2)(p) scaling. A developed avalanche model, including the production of conduction band electrons (CBE) and laser energy deposition, is applied to study the damage mechanisms. The theoretical results agree well with our measurements. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fiber Bragg grating temperature sensor for multiplexed measurement with high resolution

A novel fiber Bragg grating temperature sensor is proposed and experimentally demonstrated with a long-period grating as a linear response edge filter to convert wavelength into intensity-encoded information for interrogation. The sensor is embedded into an aluminum substrate with a larger coefficient of thermal expansion to enhance its temperature sensitivity. A large dynamic range of 110 degreesC and a high resolution of 0.02 degreesC are obtained in the experiments. The technique can be used for multiplexed measurements with one broadband source and one long-period grating, and therefore is low Cost. (C) 2004 Society of PhotoOptical Instrumentation Engineers.

Anisotropic Bragg diffraction of finite-sized volume holographic grating in photorefractive crystals

Anisotropic diffraction of uniform plane wave by finite-sized volume holographic grating in photorefractive crystals is considered. It is found that the anisotropic diffraction can take place when some special conditions are satisfied. The diffracted image is obtained in experiment for the anisotropic Bragg diffraction in Fe:LiNbO3 crystals. A coupled wave analysis is presented to study the properties of anisotropic diffraction. An analytical integral solution for the amplitudes of the diffracted beams is submitted. A trade off between high diffraction efficiency and the deterioration of reconstruction fidelity is analyzed. Numerical evaluations also show that the finite-sized anisotropic volume grating exhibits strong angular and wavelength selectivity. All the results are useful for the optimizing design of VHOE based on finite-sized volume grating structures. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.