Monitoring of type IV composite pressure vessels with multilayer fully integrated optical fiber based distributed strain sensing

Abstract

We present the results of distributed fiber optic strain sensing for condition monitoring of a hybrid type IV composite fully wrapped pressure vessel using multilayer integrated optical fibers. Distributed strain sensing was performed for a total number of 252,000 load cycles until burst of the vessel. During this ageing test material fatigue could be monitored and spatially localized. Critical material changes were detected 17,000 cycles before material failure. Results have been validated by acoustic emission analysis.