Fiber bragg grating sensors to monitor strain response of epoxy resin during curing and cryogenic temperature

Abstract

The epoxy resin is one of the critical components of large-scale superconducting magnets which find wide applications in magnetic confinement fusion, high energy accelerator and magnetic resonance imaging. In general, magnetic confinement fusion, high energy accelerator and magnetic resonance will be used at cryogenic temperatures. An approach with respect to real-time monitor of epoxy curing and cryogenic process is practically significant for magnetic reliability, maintainability as well as future mass production. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are excellent candidates of this measurement for their anti-electromagnetic interference characteristics and high sensitivity. The aim of this work is to use the embedded Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) to obtain real-time strain response of curing epoxy, and the strain change of the epoxy at cryogenic temperature from 4.2K to 300K. An FBG pre-tensioning device was designed to keep the FBG embedded in the epoxy in a stretched state during the epoxy curing process. Moreover, strain gauge sensors were also embedded to monitor the curing process at the same time. There are subtle differences in strain values obtained by the two sensors, which illustrate higher sensitivity of FBGs. This work verifies the reliability of FBG monitoring the strain response of epoxy during curing process as well as the cryogenic service.