Acousto-ultrasonic sensing for delaminated GFRP composites using an embedded FBG sensor

In this paper, an active damage detection system for composite laminates is introduced. A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) was employed as an embedded sensor for detecting ultrasonic Lamb wave generated by a piezoelectric (PZT) actuator, inside the laminates. There were two different configurations for the system, making use of a broadband light source and a laser source, respectively. It was found that the use of a laser source could provide a higher sensitivity, so it was preferred in an ultrasonic signal acquisition unit for damage detection. When a delamination is developed in composite structures, the propagation characteristics of Lamb wave is then changed. According to altered signals, the types and natures of delamination inside the structures can be evaluated. In this experiment, glass fiber-reinforced epoxy (GFRP) composite beams were used to study the feasibility of our proposed detection technique. FBG sensors were embedded in different layers of the composite beams. The responses of FBG sensors from both intact and delaminated composite beams were then compared. Finally, the acquired Lamb wave signals corresponding to different delamination sizes and locations were examined.