HIGH SPEED IMAGE CAPTURE OF THE 3-D PEEL POINT GEOMETRY DURING PAYOUT

AN ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MAXIMUM FIBER STRESS OCCURRING DURING PAYOUT IS CRITICAL TO IMPROVE THE RELIABILITY OF CURRENT AND FUTURE DISPENSER DESIGNS FOR FIBER OPTIC GUIDED VEHICLES. THE FIBER DEFORMATIONS OCCURRING AT THE PEEL POINT ARE A DIRECT INDICATION OF THE MAXIMUM FIBER STRESSES UNDER NORMAL PAYOUT CONDITIONS. IN ADDITION, THE FIBER DEFORMATIONS AT THE PEEL POINT PROVIDE AN INVALUABLE MEASURE OF THE ADHESIVE RUPTURE CHARACTERISTICS DURING PAYOUT. THE ENCLOSED PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN APPROACH TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY FOR MODIFYING AN EXISTING IMAGE CAPTURE SYSTEM (ICS) TO MEASURE THE 3-D GEOMETRY OF THE PEEL POINT FROM ONE END OF THE BOBBIN TO THE OTHER DURING FIBER PAYOUT. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS - THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL RESULT IN CAPABILITY, WHICH IS MAGNITUDES ABOVE THE STATE-OF-THE-ART FOR EXPERIMENTALLY VALIDATING THEORETICAL MODELS OF THE PEEL POINT DYNAMICS AND FOR CHARACTERIZING THE ADHESIVE RUPTURE CHARACTERISTICS DURING PAYOUT THROUGH DIRECT OBSERVATION OF THE 3-D FIBER GEOMETRY.