Potentials and challenges of integrated optical deformation sensors with TIR prism rods

Consistent monitoring of components is necessary both for operation and for „gentelligent“ development over product generations. This requires digital twins reflecting reality, which enable the in-situ monitoring of components. For highly stressed shafts, this monitoring is limited. Reasons are a lack of installation space and indirect measurements using near-surface or external sensors. New integrated sensor concepts are therefore required to enable the development of intelligent and „gentelligent“ components. This can be realized, for example, with an integrable TIR prism rod sensor, which consists of light source, prism and detector. The coupled light beam is totally reflected at the lateral faces of the prism rod in such a way that it propagates virtually helically though it. Torsion and bending change this beam path and the coupling-out projection. Due to the integrability of the sensor, there is no need for additional installation space, environmental independence and the capability to measure the parameters directly at the neutral axis. For this, challenges such as the accuracy of the prism rod, energy and data transmission and optimized evaluation must be overcome. 118 technik