Bragg intragrating structural sensing.

When a fiber-optic intracore Bragg grating is subject to an appreciable strain gradient, its reflective spectrum will not only be shifted but also be distorted because of the chirp of the grating. We employed the J-matrix formalism to calculate the influence of different strain gradients on the reflective spectra of Bragg gratings and have undertaken experiments to test these calculations. The results of these experiments have confirmed that intracore Bragg gratings can be used to evaluate strain gradients and can be thought of as quasi-distributed strain sensors. This adds a new dimension to structural sensing, permitting measurements in any situation where strain gradients exist. It also provides a warning of any sensor/host debonding.