Development of a flame spraying coating–based fiber composite structure: A thermo-mechanical finite element study

Abstract

The optical fiber smart composite structures have been widely applied for the structural health monitoring, and the packaging technique of integrating optical fiber sensor with host structure is one of the key issues. The flame spraying coating provides strong adhesive strength with good heat resistance, which is particularly suitable for the packaging applications in harsh environments. However, the elaboration process of flame spraying coating–based fiber composite structure faces great challenges due to the flame spraying mechanisms. This study evaluates numerically an overall effect of flame spraying coating formation process on the structural and the optical properties of the embedded fiber optic based on a three-dimensional finite element model. First, the lumped capacitance method is used; both the average heat flux density in the whole spraying process and the specific heat flux density of each torch sweep are estimated to initialize the thermo-mechanical modeling. Then, the stress distributions in both radial and axial directions of the embedded fiber are discussed separately. Next, the variation of refractive index of the embedded fiber optic due to the residual strain is also investigated. Finally, the elaboration parameters including torch displacement and velocity are evaluated and optimized. The simulation results show that the embedded fiber optic maintains good structural and optical properties with the presented elaboration conditions, and therefore its transmission and sensing performance can be ensured.