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Volume
12, Issue 5, 2003
Optical
fibre flow-sensor for composites manufacturing
C.Lekakou1,
S.Cook1, T.W.Ang2 and G.T.Reed2
1School
of Engineering
2SCRIBA, School of Electronics, Computing and Mathematics, University
of Surrey Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH
*Author to whom
correspondence should be addressed
E-mail: C.Lekakou@surrey.ac.uk
(Received 4/03;
accepted 7/03)
Abstract
An optical fibre
has been used as an intensity-based sensor for the monitoring of the fluid
front infiltrating a reinforcing fibre mat in composites manufacturing. The
sensor length comprised the fibre core, initially surrounded by air or vacuum
and subsequently covered by the infiltrating fluid. Two configurations were
tested where a step-change or a continual output signal was obtained,
respectively. In the latter case, the sensor used in this study demonstrates
an improvement of up to two orders of magnitude over conventional monitoring
techniques used for this application. This performance is coupled with more
obvious advantages of low cost, compatibility with composite fabrication, and
ease of use.
Keywords: optical
fibre, composites, flow-sensor
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