Self-sensing E-glass fibre reinforced composites

Conventional E-glass fibres were surface treated to enable them to act as light guides for short distances. The reinforcing fibre light guides were embedded in glass fibre reinforced epoxy prepregs and processed into composites. The resultant composite was termed the self-sensing composite as any damage to these fibres or its interface would result in the attenuation of the transmitted light. Epoxy, silicone, fluoropolymer and sol-gel derived cladding materials were evaluated as potential cladding materials. RFLGs with a silicone coating was found to give the best light transmission. The self-sensing fibres were capable of detecting a 0.5 J direct impact. The feasibility of using the RFLGs for impact damage location was also demonstrated successfully as bleeding-light could be seen in the vicinity of the impact.