Characterization of fatigue damage in adhesively bonded lap joints through dynamic, full-spectral interrogation of fiber Bragg grating sensors: 2. Simulations

In this paper, we simulate the response of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the adhesive layer of a composite lap that is subjected to harmonic excitation. To simulate accumulated fatigue damage at the adhesive layer, two forms of numerical nonlinearities are introduced into the model: (1) progressive plastic deformation of the adhesive and (2) changing the boundary of an interfacial defect at the adhesive layer across the overlap shear area. The simulation results are compared with previous measurements of the dynamic, full-spectral response of such FBG sensors for condition monitoring of the lap joint. Short-time Fourier transforms (STFT) of the locally extracted axial strain time histories reveal a transition to nonlinear behavior of the composite lap joint by means of intermittent frequencies that were observed in the experimental measurements and are not associated with the external excitation. The simulation results verify that the nonlinear changes in measured dynamic FBG responses are due to the progression of damage in the lap joint.