In-Plane Strain Measurement in Composite Structures with Fiber Bragg Grating Written in Side-Hole Elliptical Core Optical Fiber
Karol Wachtarczyk,
Paweł Gąsior,
Jerzy Kaleta,
Alicja Anuszkiewicz,
Marcel Bender,
Ralf Schledjewski,
Paweł Mergo,
Tomasz Osuch
Affiliations
Karol Wachtarczyk
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Paweł Gąsior
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Jerzy Kaleta
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Alicja Anuszkiewicz
Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Institute of Electronic Systems, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Marcel Bender
Processing of Composites Group, Montanuniversität Leoben, Otto Glöckel-Straße 2/III, 8700 Leoben, Austria
Ralf Schledjewski
Processing of Composites Group, Montanuniversität Leoben, Otto Glöckel-Straße 2/III, 8700 Leoben, Austria
Paweł Mergo
Faculty of Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, pl. M. Curie-Skłodowskiej 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
Tomasz Osuch
Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Institute of Electronic Systems, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
In this paper, the application of a fiber Bragg grating written in a highly birefringent side-hole elliptical core optical fiber for two-axial strain measurement is presented. Hybrid optical fiber structures achieved by combining large side-holes and elliptical core result in a very high birefringence of 1 × 10−3 and thus high initial Bragg peak spectral separation of 1.16 nm, as well as a very high transverse force sensitivity, of up to 650 pm/(N/mm) or even −1150 pm/(N/mm), depending on the fiber orientation with respect to the applied force. Due to the ~22 %m/m GeO2 concentration in the core the fiber being highly photosensitive, which significantly simplifies FBG fabrication by UV illumination without the need for prior hydrogen loading, which worsens thermal stability. Finally, the developed FBGs written in the highly birefringent side-hole elliptical core optical fiber were embedded in the square composite plates and applied for strain measurements. Tests of two-directional four-point bending have shown usability of such FBG for two-axial in-plane strain measurement with a single FBG in iso-thermal conditions.