Structural health monitoring in aeronautical structures by means of distributed fibre optic sensing networks

Abstract

Ensuring the reliability of the aeronautical structures throughout its entire operating life has always been one of the most important challenges achieved by complex and thorough aircraft maintenance tasks. Therefore, the development of monitoring techniques to ensure the structural integrity and the ability to predict the structural failure at an early stage would help to improve its reliability. Furthermore, a maintenance plan based on the real aircraft usage leads to significant savings in terms of cost and time.Since its appearance, distributed fibre optic sensors have been widely used and tested in different applications. Therefore, the capability to obtain distributed temperature measurements for large distances has strongly burst in the field of pipes thermal control in order to detect leaks. Most innovative companies have already included this monitoring system for more than 20 years (Vurpillot, Inaudi, & Ducret, 1996). In the field of the large

Characterization and real-time process monitoring of thermoplastic composites manufacturing processes

“…The motivation for the research of optical sensors has been mainly focused on SHM, where a sensing system evaluates the structural health of an in-service structure in order to predict damage. The Aerospace Materials and Production Department of the School of Aeronautical and Space Engineering of the UPM has been investigating the application of optical sensors in SHM of aerospace structures for more than two decades, in a series of doctoral theses, research articles and industrial projects [171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185]. In this way, key achievements have been addressed, such as the use of FBGs as strain sensors [171], the application of FBG at cryogenic temperatures [172], SHM of large aerostructures with optical and PZT sensors [176], including distributed OTDR sensing [177].…”

“…The Aerospace Materials and Production Department of the School of Aeronautical and Space Engineering of the UPM has been investigating the application of optical sensors in SHM of aerospace structures for more than two decades, in a series of doctoral theses, research articles and industrial projects [171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185]. In this way, key achievements have been addressed, such as the use of FBGs as strain sensors [171], the application of FBG at cryogenic temperatures [172], SHM of large aerostructures with optical and PZT sensors [176], including distributed OTDR sensing [177]. As concluded by Güemes et al [184,186], distributed optical sensing (OTDR) has a huge potential due to its advantages, due to the capability of obtaining strain or temperature measurements all along the fibres.…”

“…Figure 2.30 (i) shows a mechanical test of a wind blade which is monitored by optical sensors. Figure2.30 (ii) shows the mechanical test of a demonstrator stiffened panel which is monitored by distributed optical sensors[173,177].…”