Sidney Goossens successfully defended his PhD on optical fibre sensors

Sidney Goossens has publicly defended his PhD summa cum laude on the 8th of June 2021. In his PhD research, Sidney investigated the use of optical fibre sensors for detecting barely visible impact damage (BVID) in aerospace components. BVIDs are created in new composite materials after the airplane is hit by an impact, and they can eventually cause great damage. A permanently installed network of optical fibre sensors can detect and locate these BVIDs instantly. The state-of-the-art of these technologies remains however at demonstrations in lab environments. In his PhD, Sidney used a building block approach, from coupon to subcomponent level, to study the practical considerations needed to use these technologies in an industrially relevant aerospace environment. Sidney performed his work in the frame of the European Commission's H2020 CleanSky 2 project SHERLOC.