Monitoring the resin infusion manufacturing process under industrial environment using distributed sensors

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method for monitoring resin flow during industrial liquid resin infusion using distributed optical fiber sensors and micro-thermocouples, validated through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a combined sensing approach with optical fiber sensors and micro-thermocouples for accurate resin flow detection in industrial environments.

Findings

Optical fiber sensors based on Fresnel reflection effectively detect resin flow front.

Micro-thermocouples can be used routinely for resin flow monitoring.

Experimental results agree well with numerical simulations.

Abstract

A novel direct approach to detect the resin flow front during the Liquid Resin Infusion process under industrial environment is proposed. To detect the resin front accurately and verify the results, which are deduced from indirect micro-thermocouples measurements, optical fiber sensors based on Fresnel reflection are utilized. It is expected that the results derived from both techniques will lead to an improvement of our understanding of the resin flow and in particular prove that micro-thermocouples can be used as sensors as routine technique under our experimental conditions. Moreover, comparisons with numerical simulations are carried out and experimental and simulated mold filling times are successfully compared.