In every infrastructure, it is important to make sure that the cracks can be detected and monitored earlier in order to avoid any unwanted incident or any deformation of structures. Recently, Fibers Bragg gratings (FBGs) are growing interest in sensing applications such as aerospace, military, structural monitoring, and many others. FBGs are very high accuracy and also high sensitivity.
Over the last two decades, the growth of air traffic has been impressive and will strongly increase in the forthcoming years. Already by 2020, it is expected that aircraft will be significantly more affordable, safer, cleaner, and quieter than at the turn of the century.
In this context, the use of composite materials is essential for the design of high-strength, lightweight aircraft structures, which may contribute significantly to the reduction of fuel consumption and pollutants without compromising flight worthiness.
Nowadays, fiber optic sensors (FOS), particularly those based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), have been emerging as an increasingly interesting technology due to their distinctive advantages which include higher sensitivity, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and durability. Furthermore, their multiplexing capability offers the possibility to reduce dramatically the cumbersome wiring required by electrical strain gauges and accelerometers, traditionally employed for load monitoring.
FBG-based sensors and measurement systems have already found a range of interesting practical applications in load and damage monitoring of aircraft composite structures, mainly in ground tests and design. However, some aircraft are already in operation with integrated networks of fiber optic sensors taking measurements during flight. Nevertheless, the wider acceptance of the use of these sensing systems is still hindered by issues regarding sensor performance, especially when embedded, detection capability, maintainability, size and weight of the available interrogation equipment, and the lack of standardization and certification framework.
The detection and localization of impact are of the highest importance in composite aircraft structures monitoring. This is a major concern due to the mechanical strength of the composite outer skins which can sustain a large deformation without developing cracks, even though the internal sub-structure is damaged. As a consequence, in some cases, this type of damage can be undetectable during visual inspections.
Optromix Company provides structural health monitoring, the introduction of sensitive elements in composite elements and structural parts of aircraft, limit loads monitoring and temperature monitoring of key facilities: the upper stage, transition systems, space vehicles carrier rocket launch complex strain, temperature, inclination, and movement monitoring. If you would like to know more about possible sensing solutions, please contact us: info@optromix.com or +1 617 558 98 58