Journal
AEROSPACE
Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/aerospace8040109
Keywords
sol– gel sensors; photolithography; direct writing technique; UV photopolymerization; damage sensing; structural health monitoring; aircraft wings
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Funding
- Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union [Nffi 785341]
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The study investigated the potential of sol-gel-based optical sensors in the aerospace domain, fabricating a high-performance optical waveguide sensor for delamination and damage detection. Through systematic study and control of manufacturing parameters, the sensor demonstrated excellent guiding properties. Preliminary tests showed the sensor's promising ability for damage detection, making it a potential tool for structural health monitoring.
The potential of sol-gel-based optical sensors is investigated for applications in the aerospace domain. To this aim, a low-cost and non-intrusive sol-gel sensor based on waveguides, arranged as a 2D matrix structure, is fabricated by UV photolithography for delamination and damage detection. Two different organic-inorganic sol-gels were selected to fabricate the photonic device: TiO2-SiO2 and ZrO2-SiO2, acting as the waveguide core and the cladding, respectively. A systematic study was performed to determine the manufacturing parameters controlling their properties. The results show that large surfaces can be functionalized via sol-gel methods using the direct laser-writing approach. The structures are characterized in terms of refractive index, and the guiding properties were investigated through simulations and experiments, indicating an excellent behavior regarding the light guidance in a straight waveguide or in the 2D matrix structure grid. Additionally, preliminary tests show that the presence of impact can be easily detected after damage through the induced optical losses on large surfaces. This proof of concept sensor is a promising tool for structural health monitoring. To achieve the ultimate goal, the integration of this photonic sensor will be later performed on aircraft wings.
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