Study of Fiber Bragg Gratings Embedded in 3D-Printed Patches for Deformation Monitoring

Aim of this work is the analysis of the 3D printed patches embedding fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) for deformation monitoring. In particular, the paper first describes the manufacturing process and the performances of FBGs embedded in PLA and ABS rectangular patches, showing that the sensitivity to temperature is strongly dependent on the material and on the dimension of the patches. Then, the deformation characteristics are, for the first time, explored showing that the thickness of the patch, influencing the neutral axis position, acts as gaining factor on the deformation sensitivity of the FBG sensor. Such results enable the application of FBG embedded in 3D-printed patches for deformation monitoring taking in proper consideration the dimension of the patches, in particular its thickness, that allows to enhance the wavelength shift of the applied FBG sensors.