According to the current state of the art, adhesively bonded joints cannot be tested completely non-destructively. This is the main motivation to permanently monitor adhesively bonded joints in order to record their structural integrity and - as a result - to ensure safe load transmission. By the us e of permanent non-destructive Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods, structural damages in the adhesive bond can be detected at an early stage. This paper presents a new method for monitoring the structural integrity of adhesively bonded joints by integrating a Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) into the adhesive layer. The sensor concept is based on a deformation transfer from the adhesive to the POF, which results in a change in the cross-sectional shape of the POF. The cross-sectional shape influences the optical light propagation in the POF, which can be detected by simple optical measuring devices. The paper describes the general principle and first results of investigations on a structural adhesive (3M Scotch-Weld DP 609). The sensor signal is in a good relation to the stress state of the adhesive layer.
According to the current state of the art, adhesively bonded joints cannot be tested completely non-destructively. This is the main motivation to permanently monitor adhesively bonded joints in order to record their structural integrity and - as a result - to ensure safe load transmission. By the use of permanent non-destructive Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods, structural damages in the adhesive bond can be detected at an early stage. This paper presents a new method for monitoring the structural integrity of adhesively bonded joints by integrating a Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) into the adhesive layer. The sensor concept is based on a deformation transfer from the adhesive to the POF, which results in a change in the cross-sectional shape of the POF. The cross-sectional shape influences the optical light propagation in the POF, which can be detected by simple optical measuring devices. The paper describes the general principle and first results of investigations on a structural adhesive (3M Scotch-Weld DP 609). The sensor signal is in a good relation to the stress state of the adhesive layer.
PMMA polymer optical fibers embedded in semi-structural polyurethane adhesive bonds serve as economical load sensor for structural health monitoring by evaluating load-dependent optical transmission as well as modal distribution measured by a far-field camera. Scaling of sensor quantities by the sensitive fiber length is shown.