Heterogeneous Fibre Optic sensor Arrays to Monitor Composite Manufacture (H-FOAM)

到2030年，英国复合材料行业有可能从23亿英镑增长到120亿英镑，这是由于航空航天、汽车、海洋和可再生能源等行业对轻质节能结构的需求。除了经济方面的考虑，复合材料制造业的增长也是实现政府净零排放目标的关键，例如，增加英国制造的风力涡轮机的部署。英国在复合材料制造方面拥有世界领先的研究能力，专注于设计，工艺创新，新颖和可持续的材料组合和建模工具。通过监测复合材料制造过程来支持这一研究社区的仪器已经落后，这可能会阻碍当前研究活动的全部价值的实现。研究人员和制造商需要关于树脂灌注和固化过程中发生的复杂机械-热-化学过程的更好数据，以提高产量，减少浪费并加快新组件设计和材料组合的引入。我们已经证明，光纤传感器能够在多个测量点上真实的实时监测树脂流动前沿位置、速度和固化程度以及温度和应变等各个关键工艺参数。然而，为了使一个可用的仪器，其中多个被测变量被提取，它是必要的，使用异构组合的同位传感器与适当的信号处理，以分解所需的信息。我们将采用光纤布拉格光栅传感器的组合来监测温度和应变与长周期光栅监测树脂的运动和折射率，从而固化程度。为了解决这些传感器的交叉敏感性，我们将采用先进的信号处理技术来分解测量值，并以适合用户的形式提取所需的被测量。此外，传感器需要以易于处理和部署的方式进行封装和连接。我们将开发包装解决方案和网配置，提供鲁棒性。我们将寻求将这项技术发展成为一种具有成本效益的仪器，可供科学家和工程师使用，他们不是光子学专家，但他们寻求更好地了解复合材料制造过程中发生的复杂但关键的过程。

The UK composites sector has the potential to grow from £2.3Bn to £12Bn by 2030, driven by demand for light weight, energy efficient structures across sectors including aerospace, automotive, marine and renewable energy. In addition to economic considerations, the growth of composites manufacturing is also key to meeting the Government's Net Zero targets through, for instance, increased deployment of UK manufactured wind turbines.The UK has world leading research capability in composites manufacturing focussed on design, process innovation, novel and sustainable material combinations and modelling tools. Instrumentation to support this research community, by monitoring composites manufacturing processes, has fallen behind and this will potentially hinder the realisation of the full value of current research activities. Researchers and manufacturers need better data about the complex mechano-thermo-chemical processes which occur during resin infusion and curing in order to improve yield, reduce waste and speed the introduction of new component designs and material combinations. We have demonstrated that fibre optic sensors, are able to monitor individual key process parameters of resin flow front position and velocity and degree of curing, as well as temperature and strain, in real time at many measurement points. However, to make a useable instrument, where multiple measurands are extracted, it is necessary to use heterogeneous combinations of co-located sensors with appropriate signal processing to disaggregate the desired information. We will adopt combinations of Fibre Bragg Grating sensors to monitor temperature and strain with Long Period Gratings to monitor resin motion and refractive index and hence degree of curing. In order to address the cross sensitivity of these sensors, we will adopt sophisticated signal processing techniques to disaggregate measurements and extract the desired measurands in a form appropriate to users. In addition, sensors need to be encapsulated and connected in a manner which makes them easy to handle and deploy. We will develop packaging solutions and mesh configurations which provide robustness. We will seek to develop this technology into a cost effective instrument which can be used by scientists and engineers, who are not photonics experts, but who seek to gain better understanding of the complex but critical processes which occur during composite manufacture.