Performance analysis and comparison of composite materials embedded with different optical fiber sensor types

A performance analysis and comparison of different types of optical fiber sensors embedded in composite materials are presented in this paper. The different types of fiber sensors used in this study include fiber Bragg gratings, polarimetric fiber sensors and photonic crystal fiber interferometric sensors, embedded in glass and carbon fibre reinforced composite materials. This is the first time a comprehensive comparative performance analysis of different types of optical fiber sensor embedded in both glass and carbon fibre reinforced composite materials has been presented. The different parameters that are measured by the embedded sensors are temperature, strain and vibration in composite materials. The influence of buffer coatings of the optical fiber on sensor performance is also examined.