Compression Force Measured by Fiber Optic Smart Cellular Textile Composites

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a study of compression force measured by smart cellular textile composites integrated with fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. The novel design of the cellular textile composite structures integrated with FBG sensors is reported. Unit cells of a cylindrical composite shell are fabricated from glass and polyester woven fabrics and epoxy, and are used to measure compression loads. When the composite shell unit is under pressure, the axial strain induced in the FBG sensor can be determined by the Bragg wavelength shift obtained from an optic spectrum analysis. A theoretical analysis of the fiber's axial strain focuses on compression load. The influences of environmental tem perature, thickness, and effective moduli of the composites, and position and direction of the FBG sensors are discussed. The sensitivity of this device is 0.42 nm/N (for the polyester composite) and 0.29 nm/N (for the glass composite), and the measurement range is 0-2.1 N (PET) and 0-1.3 N (glass), respectively.

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