To address the shortcomings of piezoelectric and optoelectronic pulse wave sensors that are susceptible to interference in strong electromagnetic interference environments, a flexible material encapsulated Fibre Optic Grating (FBG) pulse wave sensor is proposed for measuring human radial artery pulse signals. The optimal package thickness and the position of the optical fibre in the substrate were first investigated using comsol finite element simulation software. Based on the simulation results, the sensor thickness of 5 mm and the optical fibre encapsulation at 1 mm from the lower surface of the substrate were optimised to combine the strain transfer effect and the flexibility of the sensor. The FBG flexible pulse wave sensor was fabricated and the human flexural artery pulses were collected from ten test subjects. The denoised signals were well preserved by a modified threshold wavelet method, and the signal-to-noise ratios were above 40, and the peak, tidal and repulse waveform recognition rates were 100%, 100% and 90% respectively. The results show that the flexible substrate FBG pulse wave sensor can effectively acquire and identify pulse wave signals, providing a theoretical basis and application support for further applications.