Fiber Bragg grating based shear-force sensor: modeling and testing

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a novel shear-force sensor using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) as the sensing element. The basic design consists of layers of carbon composite material (CCM) with an embedded FBG. A deformable layer of silicon rubber between the layers of CCM allows the applied shear force to change the grating periodicity and, hence, the reflected Bragg wavelength. The shift in the reflected Bragg wavelength shows a linear variation with the applied shear force. A theoretical model is established to study the shear sensing ability. In addition, numerical modeling is also carried out by the finite-element method (FEM). The experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions as well as the FEM results. In this paper, the basic concept of shear-force measurement using FBG and related theoretical model and FEM simulation results are discussed together with experimental verification.