Cure monitoring of an autoclave manufactured industrial part: added value of complementary instrumentation
Résumé
This paper introduces part of the results of the project called “Instrumentation with Multi-sensor for Composite Materials and structures (I2MC)” supported by RTRA STAE foundation. The main goal of the paper is to show the complementarities of different monitoring devices such as flexible ultrasonic transducers (FUT), micro-structured (MOF), and DTG® optical fibers, in order to infer the initial state of the composite structure by determining the residual strains. The complementarities between FUT and optical fiber sensing are defined as follows. The FUT measurements cannot estimate the strain however can determine the time when the transfer between the composite material and the optical fiber is effective. The onset of the gelation and the corresponding transverse residual strains can be quantified by the MOF FBG. Combined with the measurements of DTGs® embedded in capillaries, to avoid the influence on the measurement of transverse residual strains, a complete overview of the induced residual strains can be obtained.