Fiber Bragg Gratings Sensors for Aircraft Wing Shape Measurement: Recent Applications and Technical Analysis

• Main Authors: Zhen Ma, Xiyuan Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: aircraft; wing shape measurement; FBGs; accuracy
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/1/55

The safety monitoring and tracking of aircraft is becoming more and more important. Under aerodynamic loading, the aircraft wing will produce large bending and torsional deformation, which seriously affects the safety of aircraft. The variation of load on the aircraft wing directly affects the ground observation performance of the aircraft baseline. To compensate for baseline deformations caused by wing deformations, it is necessary to accurately obtain the deformation of the wing shape. The traditional aircraft wing shape measurement methods cannot meet the requirements of small size, light weight, low cost, anti-electromagnetic interference, and adapting to complex environment at the same time, the fiber optic sensing technology for aircraft wing shape measurement has been gradually proved to be a real time and online dynamic measurement method with many excellent characteristics. The principle technical characteristics and bonding technology of fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGs) are reviewed in this paper. The advantages and disadvantages of other measurement methods are compared and analyzed and the application status of FBG sensing technology for aircraft wing shape measurement is emphatically analyzed. Finally, comprehensive suggestions for improving the accuracy of aircraft wing shape measurement based on FBG sensing technology is put forward.