Simulation of a fiber-optic based SHM system. Application to a bonded repair patch

Simulation tools are very useful to understand and optimize NDT systems, and particularly the SHM systems. An algorithm has been proposed to quantify the damage detection capability of a fiber optic sensor network, with a finite number of strain measurements. A damage index is obtained by simulation, dependent of the damage size and position, and the number and distribution of sensors, and also of the noise of the signals; by repeating the simulation under random noise, a POD (Probability of Detection) could be calculated. The analysis is applied to a simple representative experiment, a bonded repair patch, under mechanical and thermal loads.