抄録
The present paper studied feasibility of refractive-index fiber-optic sensors for measuring cure index and local concentration of CNT composites during molding. Epoxy resin and 0.1, 0.01, 0.00lwt% of CNT were used for manufacturing composites. After the resin was poured in a small mould with two refractive-index fiber-optic sensors, it was cured at 80 ℃. From the measured optical powers, variation of refractive index Δn of the composites was calculated. From the experimental results, it was found that the cure index curves for 0.001% specimen show the same curves, however the fluctuation remained in the cure index curves of 0.1% specimens. Therefore, this method can be used to measure cure index of CNT composites when the concentration of CNT is low. From the data, frequencies of fluctuation amplitude were calculated. It was found that the frequencies of fluctuation amplitude appeared linear against concentration of CNT in a log-log plot. Since the measurement area of the sensor has 10 micron meter diameter, this result showed that this sensor has feasibility of measuring local concentration of CNT.
