FIBER OPTIC SMART STRUCTURES

Fiber optic sensors can be embedded into composite material used for a wide variety of lightweight structures supporting aircraft, spacecraf t, automobiles, and boats. Their environmental ruggedness has also all owed them so be embedded In concrete structures including buildings, d ams, and bridges. Most recently it has been proposed that the very lon g gauge lengths associated with fiber sensors could be used to monitor widely dispersed natural structures such as earthquake fault lines an d volcanic motion. This paper will review the fiber optic sensors asso ciated with smart structures and how they are being applied.