Distributed Sensing System for Health Monitoring of Deep Submergence Vehicles

The overall objective of Phase II is the design, production and testing of hybrid composite pressure vessels with embedded optical fiber monitoring to replace steel flasks. The hybrid flasks represent significant weight and acquisition cost savings that will improve ASDS mission capability and readiness. However, the procedures for conducting nondestructive testing to ascertain the strength properties of composites are less well defined than for metal structures. Embedded strain sensing provides a means by which the flask integrity could be assessed to provide indication of damage causing impending failure and prognosticate future repair, maintenance or replacement schedules. Luna and its assembled team will focus its efforts on improving the ruggedness of the optical interrogation unit and incorporating embedded fiber optics into the hybrid flask design so that this modified design can then be qualified for use on deep submergence vehicles. This flask can then be monitored to provide updated information on structural integrity and remaining life assessment. BENEFITS: There are a number of commercial and government applications that could benefit from the embedded strain sensing technology developed in this program. Luna will look for additional pressure vessel applications with partner SCI and applications in other critical composite systems including areas such as wind turbines, and naval, aerospace and civil infrastructure applications. The improved system ruggedness and sensing capability developed in this program will continue to open new potential applications for Luna’s optical sensing technology.