In-flight health monitoring of a subscale wing using a fiber Bragg grating sensor system

In this paper, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) were applied to measure dynamic strains inside a subscale wing under real-time wind tunnel testing. Two re-coated FBGs were embedded in the wing skin. The FBG sensor system includes a wavelength swept fiber laser with a wavelength indicator and fast signal processing modules. The agreement among the three kinds of sensor inside the subscale wing (FBG, electric strain gauge and PZT sensor) was confirmed in the bench test. The optical fiber strain sensors had an excellent resolution (<5 muepsilon) in the time domain and could detect a frequency response up to 100 Hz. Through the wind tunnel test of the subscale smart wing, the flutter was experimentally detected using FBG sensors and their usefulness as an in-flight health monitoring system was demonstrated.