FE Tool for Drape Modelling and Resin Pocket Prediction of Fully Embedded Optical Fiber Sensor system

Abstract

This work highlights some of the achievements obtained within the EU FP7 SmartFiber project, aiming to develop a fully embeddable optical fiber sensor system including the interrogator chip. The focus is on resolving issues holding back the industrial uptake of optical sensing technology. In a first section, the development of a placement head for automated lay-down of an optical sensor line (including the SmartFiber interrogator system) during composite manufacturing is discussed. In a second section, the attention is shifted to the occurrence of resin pockets surrounding inclusions such as the SmartFiber interrogator. A computationally efficient F.E. approach is presented capable of accurately predicting resin pocket geometries. Both small (i.e. optical fiber sensors) and large (i.e. the SmartFiber interrogator) inclusions are considered, and the F.E. predictions are validated with experimental observations. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/123