Fixed-Position Quasi-Static Load Calibration and Identification of an Aluminum Wing-Box Test Section Using Surface-Bonded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Section-load calibration is used in aircraft wing-box testing. This study evaluates a fixed-position quasi-static load-calibration and identification procedure for one 7050 aluminum wing-box test section instrumented with surface-bonded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. A multi-point FBG network was arranged on the skins and webs using finite-element-guided sensor placement to construct bending-, shear-, and torsion-related response features; strain-free reference FBGs provided temperature compensation. All experiments used the same specimen geometry, fixed-root boundary condition, sensor layout, and four actuator positions. Conditions 1–6 were used for regression calibration, whereas Conditions 7 and 8 were held out for interpolation-type validation within the same loading configuration. The maximum/average relative errors were 6.53%/1.51% for bending moment, 2.62%/0.86% for shear force, and 4.04%/1.23% for torsional moment. These results apply only to local laboratory calibration of the tested configuration and do not establish transfer to other geometries, boundary conditions, sensor layouts, loading positions, environmental conditions, or dynamic loading.