Monitoring of reinforced composites processed by microwave radiation using fiber-Bragg gratings

Abstract

The use of microwave radiation for curing carbon-fiber reinforced polymer materials (CFRP) can solve the nonhomogeneous heating problems when using conventional techniques based on the use of catalysts and can reduce the processing times. Optical fiber sensors have well-known advantages for Fiber Reinforced Composites (FRC) monitoring. In this paper fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are used for online monitoring of the residual stress and distortions produced during the microwave curing process. The CFRP samples are composed by layers of unidirectional carbon fibers and epoxy resin. The results show a very different behavior between the direction of carbon fibers and the perpendicular direction. Results are compared with the conventional processing technique