Fiber optic approach for detecting corrosion

Abstract

Corrosion is a multi-billion dollar problem faced by industry. The ability to monitor the hidden metallic structure of an aircraft for corrosion could result in greater availability of existing aircraft fleets. Silica exposed-core microstructured optical fiber sensors are inherently suited towards this application, as they are extremely lightweight, robust, and suitable both for distributed measurements and for embedding in otherwise inaccessible corrosion-prone areas. By functionalizing the fiber with chemosensors sensitive to corrosion by-products, we demonstrate in-situ kinetic measurements of accelerated corrosion in simulated aluminum aircraft joints.