Disbond monitoring in adhesive joints using shear stress optical fiber sensors

We present dedicated shear stress optical fiber sensors for in situ disbond monitoring of adhesive bonds. The shear stress sensitivity of these sensors is about 60 pm MPa-1, which corresponds to a shear strain sensing resolution of 50 e. By integrating a combination of three such sensors in the adhesive bond line of a single lap joint, we can assess the internal shear stress distribution when the joint is tensile loaded. Disbonding of this joint was initiated by cyclic tensile loading, and the sensor responses were monitored during this process. Our results show that this sensing system can detect disbonds as small as 100 m.