High-resolution Brillouin analysis of composite materials beams

High-resolution Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis of fibers embedded within beams of composite materials is performed with 4 cm resolution and 0.5 MHz sensitivity. Two new contributions are presented. First, analysis was carried out continuously over 30 hours following the production of a beam, observing heating during exothermal curing and buildup of residual strains.

Second, the bending stiffness and Young's modulus of the composite beam were extracted based on distributed strain measurements, taken during a static three-point bending experiment. The calculated parameters were used to forecast the beam deflections. The latter were favorably compared against external displacement measurements.