Laboratory Feasibility Study of a Composite Embedded Fiber Optic Sensor for Measurement of Structural Vibrations

The feasibility is assessed of using fiber optic strain sensors embedded in a composite material to measure the magnitude and frequency of structural vibrations for control of flexible elements. This study demonstrates the ability to embed fiber optic strain sensors in a composite material, determines the performance of these sensors, identifies active control system architectures that are matched to the fiber optic system measurands to damp vibrations of large space structures, and estimates the stability achievable by these methods. A detailed laboratory study was performed using a wide band closed-loop-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer to conduct transverse vibration measurements on sub-scale composite elements with embedded fiber sensors. The interferometer detects vibrations by measuring the strain transferred by the composite to the embedded optical fiber. The strain sensor demonstrated the ability to track the vibrations of a cantilever beam over a frequency bandwidth ranging from approximately 5 Hz to almost 1000 Hz. The sensor was unable to detect dc strains because of thermal drift and laser power fluctuations. These factors produced a drift in the dc signal level, which was indistinguishable from static strain measurements. Beyond 1000 Hz, the composite element was unable to follow the drive mechanism. The noise equivalent strain was epsilon is approximately 10 to the -10th power.