Smart Synthetic Material Arresting Cable Based on Embedded Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors

Redondo Optics Inc. (ROI) proposes to develop and deliver to the Navy an embedded distributed fiber optic sensor (EDIFOS) system for the real-time, structural health monitoring, damage assessment, and lifetime prediction of synthetic material arresting gear cables. The proposed EDIFOS system uses a distributed array of fiber Bragg grating sensors, sensitive to stress/strain, impact damage, kinking and bending, and temperature, embedded within the strands of a synthetic material arresting cable structure. Fiber Bragg grating sensors are a mature technology typically used for the in-situ structural health monitoring of advanced structures. The periodic grating produces an optical, wavelength-encoded signal whose properties are dependent on the structural, and mechanical environment of the sensor fiber. The FBG sensor interrogation system monitors the status of each of the individual FBG sensors distributed along the sensor fibers and transforms this information in real-time in to a graphical display of the stress/strain and temperature state of the entire arresting gear cable. An alarm system triggers to pinpoint those locations of potential damage. ROI’s EDIFOS™ system is poised to revolutionize the field of synthetic material cable structural health monitors and to gain a rapid acceptance into the structural health monitoring and nondestructive inspection (SHM/NDI) market. BENEFITS: ROI’s EDIFOS system represents a new, highly robust and reliable, technology that can be use for the structural damage assessment of critical infrastructures. Its miniature package, low power operation, and state-of-the-art data communications architecture, all at a very affordable price, makes it a very attractive solution for a large number of SHM/NDI applications in aerospace, naval and maritime industry, civil structures like bridges, buildings and dams, the oil and chemical industry, and for homeland security applications.