Structural Health Monitoring (HMS) of composite materials using Chirped Fiber Bragg Grating (CFBG) sensors

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Composite materials are fast replacing metallic components in numerous applications, offering lighter weight, higher specific strength, good vibrational damping, higher fatigue life, and higher resistance to wear, creep, corrosion and temperature variations, among other advantages. It is also possible to manufacture larger and more complex parts with less joining and fastening elements involved. Despite their advantages, composite materials are susceptible to failures due to the lack of reinforcement in the out-of-plane direction, where impact forces can cause critical damage. Flaws in manufacturing and assembly steps could cause various modes of failure. There is a high demand for real-time sensor-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. Chirped Fiber Bragg Grating (CFBG) sensors may be placed in the composites for dynamic measurement of strains and vibrations at various points. CINDTECHS has developed HiDA software (Hierarchical Data Auditor) to detect failures in composites using FBF sensor data as an input. HiDA uses latest composite material and solid modelling and FEM to detect failures and their modalities. However, the algorithms and software performance need to be evaluated via development and integration of actual CFBG sensor and running experiments with real parts. These are the main goals of the current Engage proposal and which will lead to completion and validation of CINDTECH's final product ADROIT (Autonomous & Dynamically Robust Opto-Implemented Tracker), which can be applied to wind-turbine applications in short-term and aerospace and auto-industry in longer term. In this partnership, Professor Ahmadi's research group experience and facilities at Advanced Biomechatronics and Robotics Laboratory, and fiber optic development facilities at Carleton will be used to achieve the intended goals.