Experimental and numerical study of the additively manufactured carbon fibre reinforced polymers including fibre Bragg grating sensors

Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors have been known as one of the smart localized and globalized Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) devices for various structural applications specifically those utilize composite materials. In recent decades the use of advanced composite materials green manufacturing methods has increased the requirement to provide effective means of performing experimental investigations to support analytical and numerical analyses. The main objective of this article is to analyse the performance of additively manufactured (AM) Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sample with FBG sensors under the influence of environmental factors (temperature, relative humidity). The sample was manufactured using continuous carbon fibre applying Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technique. During the AM process one FBG sensor was embedded in the middle of the sample, while the second FBG sensor was attached to the finished sample surface. The environmental tests were conducted to investigate the durability of AM elements and influences of embedded FBG sensors on the composite specimen. Additionally, the behaviour of composite materials under environmental loading was modelled using the Finite Element Method (FEM) through an Abaqus software. It allows to achieve a more complex picture of embedded fibre optic influences on AM composite material durability.