Development of a fiber optic health monitoring system for aerospace applications

Abstract

This paper describes our research activity involved in the identification, development and test of a prototype SHM system constituted by optical sensing nodes to measure both temperature and strain on ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTC) materials up to 1000 °C. Commercially available optic devices can operate up to 550 °C. To raise temperature limit up to 1000 °C, custom devices, mainly under development for scientific applications, have been identified. A prototype SHM system has been developed adopting a FBG sensor for temperature measurement and an EFPI sensor in sapphire fiber for strain measurement. The preliminary findings from thermo-mechanical tests indicate that former SHM system is capable of accurately measuring strain at elevated temperatures on UHTC materials.

References

[1] Levin K., Department of Aeronautics, Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockolm, Sweden, Report 2001-8, ISSN 0280-4646.

[2] ProsserW. H., BrownT. L., WoodardS. E., FlemingG. A., CooperE. G.. AIP Conference Proceedings, 2003, 657: 1582