Fatigue Damage Detection in Composite Rods Using Fiber Optic Intensity Based Sensors

An application of the embedded intensity based fiber optic sensors (FOS) for fatigue damage detection in cantilevered composite rods is presented. During the fatigue test with constant amplitude of oscillations, the deflection and the intensity of optical signals were acquired constantly until the optical signal drop has been observed. Characteristics of optical signals are described and discussed. In order to quantify the state of damage just after a significant change in optical signal intensity, the numerical verification of the reduced stiffness, based on static measurements, is carried out. (Host material: glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin.)