Cure monitoring of cross-ply composite laminates with an encapsulated fibre Bragg grating

A very important aspect of a composite manufacturing process is the appearance of residual strains and stresses during the curing cycle. The formation of thermal residual strains arise mainly from the difference in thermal expansion between the reinforcement fibres and the matrix material. In this paper, Fibre Bragg grating sensors are used to monitor the internal strain state of a cross-ply laminate [0(2), 90(2)](2s) during its curing cycle. In a first experiment, it is shown that transverse strain fields can influence the residual strain measurements. Therefore, one should try to isolate the sensor from these transversal strain fields. In the second experiment, this is done by integrating the sensors in a capillary. As such we were able to quantify the longitudinal residual strains of a cross-ply laminate.

ISBN:9780415621311

Publication year:2012

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

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