Paper number 1215

DETECTION OF TRANSVERSE CRACKS IN COMPOSITE LAMINATES BY EMBEDDED PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBERS

Nobuo Takeda, Tatsuro Kosaka and Takayuki Ichiyama

The University of Tokyo, Center for Collaborative Research
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 153-8904

Summary

In this paper, tensile and three-point bending tests were conducted for GFRP laminates with embedded plastic optical fibers. Transverse cracks in GFRP laminates were observed by a video microscope. As the strain increased, the optical power decreased linearly before the initiation of transverse cracks, but nonlinear decrease appeared after that. There was no damage of the optical fiber before final failure of the specimen. Therefore, it is concluded that the nonlinearly change of the optical power loss was affected by the transverse cracks. Then, it is considered that plastic optical fibers have much potential to be used as transverse crack detecting sensors for smart composites. Simulated results by using a three-dimensional ray tracing model were compared with the experimental results, and it was found that the nonlinear change of the optical power loss was strongly affected by the deformation near a crack.

Keywords

plastic fiber sensor, damage sensor, Transverse crack detection, smart composite.