The integration of flexible photonics into high value composite structures, such as those made of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) offers new intelligent sensing capability for sustainable manufacture and through-life structural monitoring. Through utilisation of the planar functionality offered by flexible photonics, within these composite matrices, enables the creation of new intelligent structures for a host of sectors including aerospace, clean energy infrastructure and automotive.
This presentation highlights the design considerations needed when integrating flexible photonics into fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) and highlights some promising opportunities that showcase specific demonstrations achieved for flexible planar doped silica. Notable applications, such as scalable tri-axial strain sensing and the implementation of a branching optical network architecture within an FRP composite, will be presented to illustrate the new functionality offered.
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