This paper summarises ongoing research conducted at the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite
Structures (CRC-ACS) on the durability to fatigue loading of optical fibre sensors, which were surface mounted or
embedded in fibre reinforced plastic composites. The objective of the research is to quantify the parameters affecting the
fatigue performance of such optical fibres. Signal degradation of surface mounted and embedded Bragg grating sensors
has been studied for a number of configurations. For some configurations, preliminary results indicate significant signal
degradation on tension loaded optical fibres after 50,000 cycles strained to 4000 &mgr;&Vegr; and this degradation has been linked
with fibre cracking. No such cracking was observed in compression loaded optical fibres. The durability of the bonding
at various interfaces of the optical fibre / composite system has been investigated for various polyimide coated fibres.
After one million cycles to 3000 &mgr;&Vegr;, 150 &mgr;m diameter optical fibres exhibited significant disbonding in the
coating / cladding interface of the optical fibre. Special 52 &mgr;m diameter optical fibres also exhibited significant
disbonding but to a lesser degree than that in the larger fibres. Stripped fibres exhibited no disbonding at the optical fibre
to composite interface.
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