A MULTIFUNCTIONAL SENSOR BASED ON ADDRESSABLE FIBER BRAGG STRUCTURES WITH RADIOPHOTONIC INTERROGATION FOR MONITORING THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF THERMOSET POLYMER COMPOSITES IN A MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGICAL COMPLEX

Abstract

This article aims to formulate the tasks for creating a multifunctional sensor based on addressed fiber Bragg structures (AFBS) with radiophotonic interrogation for monitoring the manufacturing process of thermosetting polymer composites in a microwave processing complex. The first part provides an overview, analyzing the available data on the types of sensors used to monitor binder pouring and composite curing, and concluding on the potential of using fiber optic sensors for solving these problems. The obtained conclusions serve as a roadmap for the second part, which includes reviews of fiber optic technologies used in composite production and the selection of a prototype capable of simultaneously monitoring the pouring and curing processes. The key element of the prototype is a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The known advantages of FBGs are offset by the need to use expensive optoelectronic interrogators with limited measurement accuracy for their interrogation. A three-component multifunctional sensor is proposed to address this drawback, as well as to quickly and accurately interrogate sensitive elements based on AFBS with radiophotonic interrogation. An example of the AFBS sensor's application in monitoring the filling and curing of TRPCMs in a microwave processing complex is discussed in the third part of the article. The uniqueness of this solution lies in the sensor's ability to obtain multiple characteristics critical for monitoring the TRPCM manufacturing process: resin filling, resin refractive index measurement, combined measurement of thermal and mechanical strains using core-shell-resin and core-resin-as-shell sensors, and separate measurements of these strains using two fiber components. All components are wave-type AFBSs.