Reliability and Accuracy of Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors for Strain Monitoring in Advanced Composite Structures

This work investigated issues for an efficient and reliable embedding and use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors for strain monitoring of composite structures with particular regard to the manufacturing process of components in the nautical field by means of the vacuum bag technique in autoclave. CFRP material laminates with embedded FBGs were produced and the effect of the curing process parameters on the light transmission characteristics of the optical fibers was initially investigated. Two different types of coating, namely polyimide and acrylate, were tested by measuring the light attenuation by an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. Tensile specimens were subsequently extracted from the laminas and instrumented also with a surface-mounted conventional electrical strain gage (SG). Comparison between the FBG and SG measurements during static tensile tests allowed the evaluation of the strain monitoring capability of the FBGs, in particular of their sensitivity (i.e., gage factor) when embedded.