Textile carbon reinforcement structures with integrated optical fibre sensors designed for SHM applications

An optical fibre-based strain sensor embroidered to a functionalised carbon structure (FCS) that can be used for structural health monitoring (SHM) is introduced. The aim of the design is not only to monitor strain, but also to act as a structural strengthening mechanism in the target application. The integration of optical fibres on the FCS is achieved by “interweaving” the two elements on a polymer textile substrate in a grid formation using a specialised fabrication process. The thus obtained sensor was then characterised using a fibre optic Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometric setup where a variation in the fibre length, i.e. resulting from strain, would induce a variation in the interference pattern. To do so, two different functionalised skein samples (incorporating optical fibres) were subjected to varying elongation using a tensile testing machine by carefully incrementing the applied force. A good correlation between the applied force and measured length change was observed, showing the value of the dual-achievement of the proposed optical fibre-based mechanism in obtaining strain measurement while being utilised as a strengthening agent.