Numerical and experimental investigation of hygro mechanical states of glass fiber reinforced polyester composites experienced by FBG sensors

This study is focused on the finite element analysis of the hygro-elastic stresses experienced by unidirectional composite structures instrumented by Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors. One of the significant advantages of this method is that by taking into account the complex geometry of elaborated specimen and their different constituents with heterogeneous hygroscopic and mechanical properties. In the first time, the obtained results were compared with the results obtained owing to an analytical solution deduced from the simplified concentric cylinders approach. This comparison allows us to evaluate the reliability of the concentric cylinders approach which cannot account for every aspects of the actual geometry of the studied samples. Besides the numerical results were compared to the experimental characterization of the mechanical states deduced from the Fiber Bragg Grating measurements.