ADVANCED COMPOSITES WITH EMBEDDED FIBER OPTIC SENSORS FOR SMART APPLICATIONS

Due to the increased use of advanced composites with complex architect ure, demand for innovative characterization techniques has also increa sed. This paper deals with a sensitive and inexpensive methodology for characterization of stress states in composites using embedded optica l fibers. The principle of operation of the developed technique is bas ed on spatial modulation of modal pou er in multimode fibers. A theore tical model that explains the phenomenon of spatial intensity modulati on induced in multimode optical fibers is discussed. Numerical results from the model are verified against experimental results obtained fro m smart structures fabricated with embedded fiber optic sensors.