Optical Fiber-Based Corrosion System Using Electrochemically Active Coatings

The objective of the proposed program is to address the high service costs of the current U.S. Navy fleet of aircraft by developing a distributed optical fiber sensor system that will help reduce the costs associated with corrosion damage and extend the lifetime of existing aircraft. Annual corrosion of Navy metallic structures has been estimated as high as $1 billion. Additional costs arise from aircraft downtime that results from disassembly procedures necessary to locate corrosion damage in remote locations. Furthermore, the potential to damage the aircraft during maintenance is increased when disassembly and reassembly occurs. The development of on-line optical fiber sensors capable of detecting corrosion would eliminate a significant portion of maintenance costs. During Phase I, F&S (Fiber & Sensor Technologies, Inc.), with support from Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies, the Electrochemical Science and Applications Center at the University of Virginia, and the Fiber & Electro-Optics Research Center at Virginia Tech, proposes to investigate the feasibility of monitoring aircraft corrosion using distributed arrays of photoinduced, blazed Bragg grating taps, long-period grating cladding mode couplers, and micromechanical beamsplitters coated with electrochemically active species such as morin and fluorescein. The development team proposes to demonstrate single sensor operation during Phase I and a high-density multiplexed sensor system during Phase II.