Squeezing light out of crystals: triboluminescent sensors

Ian Sage; Rodney Alan Badcock; Lisa Humberstone; Norman Geddes; Martin Kemp; Sharon Bishop; Grant Bourhill

doi:10.1117/12.352790

12 July 1999 Squeezing light out of crystals: triboluminescent sensors

Ian Sage, Rodney Alan Badcock, Lisa Humberstone, Norman Geddes, Martin Kemp, Sharon Bishop, Grant Bourhill

Proceedings Volume 3675, Smart Structures and Materials 1999: Smart Materials Technologies; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.352790
Event: 1999 Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, 1999, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

Currently, there are no simple sensing techniques for determining in real-time both the severity and location of structural damage in a composite caused by a dynamic impact event. Materials are known which emit light when they are fractured. This fracture-induced light emissions is known as triboluminescence. A triboluminescent material embedded in, or attached on, a composite structure could act as a real- time damage sensor. The occurrence and severity of the damage is given by the intensity of the resulting triboluminescent light. Since the triboluminescent light emission is fracture-initiated, no signal would be generated by a triboluminescent sensor until damage had actually occurred. Hence no false alarms are generated by this type of sensor. An array of triboluminescent sensors may allow real-time damage location monitoring simply by determining the wavelength of the emitted light. We have developed a series of highly efficient triboluminescent materials with sufficient thermal and chemical properties to allow doping into composites. We report a series of proof-of-principle experiments with these materials which strongly support the potential of triboluminescent sensors to monitor in real- time both the magnitude and location of structural damage.

Citation Download Citation

Ian Sage, Rodney Alan Badcock, Lisa Humberstone, Norman Geddes, Martin Kemp, Sharon Bishop, and Grant Bourhill "Squeezing light out of crystals: triboluminescent sensors", Proc. SPIE 3675, Smart Structures and Materials 1999: Smart Materials Technologies, (12 July 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.352790

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