Localisation of embedded water drop in glass composite using THz spectroscopy

Glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP) are widely exploited in many industrial branches. Due to this Structural Health Monitoring systems containing embedded fibre optics sensors are applied. One of the problems that can influence on composite element durability is water contamination that can be introduced into material structure during manufacturing. Such inclusion can be a damage origin significantly decreasing mechanical properties of an element. A non-destructive method that can be applied for inspection of an internal structure of elements is THz spectroscopy. It can be used for identifications of material discontinuities that results in changes of absorption, refractive index or scattering of propagating THz waves. The limitations of THz propagation through water makes this technique a promising solution for detection of a water inclusion. The paper presents an application of THz spectroscopy for detection and localisation of a water drop inclusion embedded in a GFRP material between two fibre optics with fibre Bragg grating sensors. The proposed filtering method allowed to determine a 3D shape of the water drop.