Simultaneous Measurement of Strain and Temperature Distributions Using Optical Fibers with Different GeO2 and B2O3 Doping.

Compensating for the effects of temperature is a crucial issue in structural health monitoring when using optical fiber sensors. This study focused on the change in sensitivity due to differences in GeO2 and B2O3 doping and then verified the accuracy when measuring the strain and temperature distributions simultaneously. Four types of optical fiber sensors were utilized to measure the strain and temperature in four-point bending tests, and the best combination of the sensors resulted in strain and temperature errors of 28.4 µÏµ and 1.52 °C, respectively. Based on the results obtained from the four-point bending tests, we discussed the error factors via an error propagation analysis. The results of the error propagation analysis agreed well with the experimental results, thus indicating the effectiveness of the analysis as a method for verifying accuracy and error factors.

Quasi-distributed vibration sensing using OFDR and weak reflectors.

We proposed a quasi-distributed vibration sensing technique using in-line weak reflectors and optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). As a result, we achieved an 8 kHz measurable vibration frequency with a 15-20 cm spatial resolution employing a low repetition rate (∼8 Hz). Moreover, a measurable frequency of 30 kHz was achieved for a 1.5 m spatial resolution. The ability of the system to determine the frequency and amplitude of several sections vibrating simultaneously is evaluated for different configurations. Because of the simple arrangement, high detectable frequency, and high sensitivity, this approach is expected to be especially well suited for mechanical vibration sensing applications, particularly in medium-sized structures.

Fast demodulation of OFDR based long length FBG sensing system for noisy signals.

The high spatial resolution, high accuracy, as well as real-time capability of distributed fiber-optic sensors are important for real-time structural health monitoring. As one of the promising technologies, the optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) based sensors, have attracted lots of attention. Currently, for the demodulation, the conventional method based on short time Fourier transform requires long computational time, while a recent method based on group delay can remarkably improve the calculation speed but has low noise tolerance. In this study, we propose a fast demodulation method which employs the cross correlation, weighted sliding windowed Fourier transform and logistic activation function based thresholding process. This approach keeps good balance among the high spatial resolution, high accuracy, and the real-time capability that is expected to further improve the applicability of OFDR based sensors.

Fiber-optic simultaneous distributed monitoring of strain and temperature for an aircraft wing during flight.

We applied a fiber optic distributed simultaneous strain and temperature measurement technique to the structural monitoring of the main wing of a middle-sized passenger jet aircraft during flight. We used 40 10 cm long fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), inscribed in a highly birefringent polarization-maintaining fiber. The FBGs were interrogated by optical frequency domain reflectometry, which could measure Bragg wavelength distributions at a sampling rate of 151 Hz. The simultaneous measurement technique could detect structural behaviors of the wing during flight under temperature-changing conditions. In addition, we discuss the effect of the polarization mode-coupling and the apparent position shift of the FBGs over time, which occurred during flight.

Dependence of measurement accuracy on the birefringence of PANDA fiber Bragg gratings in distributed simultaneous strain and temperature sensing.

By both simulation and experiment, we studied the relationship of the measurement accuracy and the birefringence of the distributed simultaneous strain and temperature sensor using polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg gratings (PANDA-FBGs). The PANDA-FBGs were applied to an optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) which is capable of distributed measurement at high spatial resolution and sampling rate. The simulated results had agreement with the experimental results that the measurement accuracy of both strain and temperature were improved by increasing the birefringence. Additionally, the efficiency of the accuracy improvements decreased when accuracy increased.

Self-Evaluation of PANDA-FBG Based Sensing System for Dynamic Distributed Strain and Temperature Measurement.

A novel method is introduced in this work for effectively evaluating the performance of the PANDA type polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating (PANDA-FBG) distributed dynamic strain and temperature sensing system. Conventionally, the errors during the measurement are unknown or evaluated by using other sensors such as strain gauge and thermocouples. This will make the sensing system complicated and decrease the efficiency since more than one kind of sensor is applied for the same measurand. In this study, we used the approximately constant ratio of primary errors in strain and temperature measurement and realized the self-evaluation of the sensing system, which can significantly enhance the applicability, as well as the reliability in strategy making.

Signal processing method based on group delay calculation for distributed Bragg wavelength shift in optical frequency domain reflectometry.

A signal processing method based on group delay calculations is introduced for distributed measurements of long-length fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). Bragg wavelength shifts in interfered signals of OFDR are regarded as group delay. By calculating group delay, the distribution of Bragg wavelength shifts is obtained with high computational efficiency. We introduce weighted averaging process for noise reduction. This method required only 3.5% of signal processing time which was necessary for conventional equivalent signal processing based on short-time Fourier transform. The method also showed high sensitivity to experimental signals where non-uniform strain distributions existed in a long-length FBG.

A fiber optic Doppler sensor and its application in debonding detection for composite structures.

Debonding is one of the most important damage forms in fiber-reinforced composite structures. This work was devoted to the debonding damage detection of lap splice joints in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) structures, which is based on guided ultrasonic wave signals captured by using fiber optic Doppler (FOD) sensor with spiral shape. Interferometers based on two types of laser sources, namely the He-Ne laser and the infrared semiconductor laser, are proposed and compared in this study for the purpose of measuring Doppler frequency shift of the FOD sensor. Locations of the FOD sensors are optimized based on mechanical characteristics of lap splice joint. The FOD sensors are subsequently used to detect the guided ultrasonic waves propagating in the CFRP structures. By taking advantage of signal processing approaches, features of the guided wave signals can be revealed. The results demonstrate that debonding in the lap splice joint results in arrival time delay of the first package in the guided wave signals, which can be the characteristic for debonding damage inspection and damage extent estimation.

Guided wave and damage detection in composite laminates using different fiber optic sensors.

Guided wave detection using different fiber optic sensors and their applications in damage detection for composite laminates were systematically investigated and compared in this paper. Two types of fiber optic sensors, namely fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and Doppler effect-based fiber optic (FOD) sensors, were addressed and guided wave detection systems were constructed for both types. Guided waves generated by a piezoelectric transducer were propagated through a quasi-isotropic carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate and acquired by these fiber optic sensors. Characteristics of these fiber optic sensors in ultrasonic guided wave detection were systematically compared. Results demonstrated that both the FBG and FOD sensors can be applied in guided wave and damage detection for the CFRP laminates. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of guided wave signal captured by an FOD sensor is relatively high in comparison with that of the FBG sensor because of their different physical principles in ultrasonic detection. Further, the FOD sensor is sensitive to the damage-induced fundamental shear horizontal (SH(0)) guided wave that, however, cannot be detected by using the FBG sensor, because the FOD sensor is omnidirectional in ultrasound detection and, in contrast, the FBG sensor is severely direction dependent.