Design and characterization of curvature sensors based on plastic optical fibers for structural monitoring

Sensors able to measure curvature changes are emerging as an effective alternative to the more common strain gauges in structural health monitoring. Particularly interesting is the optical fiber implementation of such sensors and this paper discusses the design and characterization of a simple, cheap, and compact curvature sensor based on plastic optical fibers. A characterization setup is also proposed in order to test the sensor performances with dynamic deformations.