Strain Monitoring of a Composite Wing

Abstract

An instrumented composite wing is described. The wing is designed to meet the load and ruggedness requirements for a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in search-And-rescue applications. The UAV supports educational systems development and has a 2.1-m wingspan. The wing structure consists of a foam core covered by a carbon-fiber, laminate composite shell. To quantify the wing characteristics, a fiber-optic strain sensor was surface mounted to measure distributed strain. This sensor is based on Rayleigh scattering from local index variations and it is capable of high spatial resolution. The use of the Rayleigh-scattering fiber-optic sensors for distributed measurements is discussed.

Meeting Name

SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring (2016: Mar. 21-24, Las Vegas, NV)

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Carbon; Carbon fibers; Composite materials; Fiber optics; Fibers; Fixed wings; Foams; Intelligent structures; Laminated composites; Rayleigh scattering; Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); Wings; Distributed measurements; Distributed strain; Educational systems; Fiber optic strain sensor; Fiber-optic sensing; High spatial resolution; Laminate composites; Search-and-rescue applications; Fiber optic sensors; Composites; Fiber Optic Sensing; Smart Structures

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-151060044-7

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0277-786X; 1996-756X

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2016 SPIE, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Mar 2016

Link to Full Text

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