Measurement of inhomogeneous strain fields by fiber optic sensors embedded in a polymer composite material

Experimental results of strain field measurement in polymer composite specimens by Bragg grating fiber optic strain sensors embedded in the material are considered. A rectangular plate and a rectangular plate with “butterfly” shaped cuts are used as specimens. The results of uniaxial strain experiments with rectangular plates show that fiber optic strain sensors can be used to measure the strains, and these results can be used to calculate the calibration coefficients for fiber optic strain sensors. A gradient strain field is attained in a plate with cuts, and the possibility of measuring this field by fiber optic strain sensors is the main goal of this paper. The results of measurements of gradient strain fields in the plate with cuts are compared with the results obtained by using the three-dimensional digital optic system Vix-3D and with the results of numerical computations based on finite element methods. It is shown that the difference between the strain values obtained by these three methods does not exceed 5%.