Non-destructive evaluation of composite pressure vessel by using FBG sensors

In recent years, advanced composite structures are used extensively in many industries such as aerospace, aircraft, automobile, pipeline and civil engineering. Reliability and safety are crucial requirements posed by them to the advanced composite structures because of their harsh working conditions. Therefore, as a very important measure, structural health monitoring (SHM) in-service is definitely demanded for ensuring their safe working in-situ. In this paper, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are surface-mounted on the hoop and in the axial directions of a FRP pressure vessel to monitor the strain status during its pressurization. The experimental results show that the FBG sensors could be used to monitor the strain development and determine the ultimate failure strain of the composite pressure vessel.