Strain monitoring of FRP elements using an embedded fibre optic sensor

This paper presents a strain monitoring approach for following up FRP elements (in this case a [90] CFRP laminate) using an embedded fibre optic sensor. The sensor exists of two fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) written in a polarization maintaining fibre (PMF). First, the strain response of the non-embedded sensor is determined which makes it possible to relate the different bragg peak shifts with the induced strain field in the core of the optical fibre. Secondly, a transfer coefficient matrix is presented and calculated using finite element simulations which relates the measured strain field of the sensor with the adjacent one existing in the structure as if no sensor would be present