Shape Sensing for Morphing Structures Using Fiber Bragg Grating Technology

Shape sensing is one of the versatile applications in a wide market spread, made practical with the use of fiber-optic (FO) sensors for strain sensing. The properties and capabilities of optical fibers with regard to both strain sensing and data transmission, their high endurance, and chemically inertness allow successful implementations in harsh environments such as aerospace. In the SARISTU project, a FO sensing-based approach for chord-wise shape reconstruction of an adaptive trailing edge device (ATED) is realized with the extrinsic implementation of fiber Bragg grating sensors. With this implementation, the capability is provided for a closed-loop control of the morphing mechanism for a given set of the target shapes. This paper describes the development and implementation of the FO sensing system as well as the applied methodology using Frenet–Serret formulas for shape reconstruction, including component and functional model testing results for validation.