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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M25315/01
Title: EMBEDDED OPTICAL FIBRES AS PHASED ARRAY ULTRASONIC SOURCES FOR SMART STRUCTURES
Principal Investigator: Culshaw, Professor B
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
BAE Systems
Department: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 22 February 1999 Ends: 21 March 2001 Value (£): 111,054
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Instrumentation Eng. & Dev.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Manufacturing
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
In this project we propose to incorporate a linear array of embedded optical fibre ultrasonic sources into a carbon fibre composite plate. Each source will be WC excited using a laser diode modulated with a PRBS code sequence. The resulting beam from the array will be steered by digitally varying the delay between the feeds to each source. Embedding optical fibres into CFRP is a proven process. The optical fibres are virtually non invasive. Consequently, this will, for the first time, enable a truly integrated self probing smart structure to be realised and will pave the way towards entirely new techniques for the ultrasonic probing of structures. Each array element approximates extremely closely to a point source and is therefore essentially omnidirectional and the semiconductor laser sources have proven bandwidths to several tens of megahertz so, in both spatial and temporal terms, no other source could achieve nearly comparable bandwidths. The digitally programmed time delayed feeds to each array element also promise unique broadband steering capability, preserving the coding sequence fidelity for all beam orientations. Additionally the fully embedded source offers long term stability and repeatability in the ultrasonic structure interface. The self diagnostic capability should therefore be totally reliable.
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Organisation Website: http://www.strath.ac.uk