Low weight additive manufacturing FBG accelerometer: design, characterization and testing

Structural Health Monitoring is considered the process of damage detection and structural characterization by any type of on-board sensors. Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) are increasing their popularity due to their many advantages like easy multiplexing, negligible weight and size, high sensitivity, inert to electromagnetic fields, etc. FBGs allow obtaining directly strain and temperature, and other magnitudes can also be measured by the adaptation of the Bragg condition. In particular, the acceleration is of special importance for dynamic analysis. In this work, a low weight accelerometer has been developed using a FBG. It consists in a hexagonal lattice hollow cylinder designed with a resonance frequency above 500 Hz. A Finite Element Model (FEM) was used to analyse dynamic behaviour of the sensor. Then, it was modelled in a CAD software and exported to additive manufacturing machines. Finally, a characterization test campaign was carried out obtaining a sensitivity of 19.65 pm/g. As a case study, this paper presents the experimental modal analysis of the wing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The measurements from piezoelectric, MEMS accelerometers, embedded FBGs sensors and the developed FBG accelerometer are compared.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIA2013-43085-P y BIA2016-75042-C2-1-

Design and Modeling of a High Sensitivity Fiber Bragg Grating-Based Accelerometer

Use of a detailed theoretical model has allowed the optimization of the design of a high sensitivity accelerometer, based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and an accelerometer based on this design has been demonstrated experimentally. With a universal model based on double-point encapsulation established, the performance of the device in terms of its optimal sensitivity and frequency distribution has been analyzed, with an optimization `figure of merit' using the product of the sensitivity and the resonant frequency being presented. The experimental results obtained indicate that the FBG-based accelerometer thus developed shows a broad, flat frequency band, a corresponding flat range sensitivity of ~ 152.0pm/G, a resonant frequency of 441.0Hz, and a cross-axis sensitivity of less than 3.6% of the main-axis sensitivity. An accelerometer of this type and with this performance thus has the potential for the important field of low frequency oil-gas seismic exploration

Fiber bragg grating sensors for mainstream industrial processes

This paper reviews fiber Bragg grating sensing technology with respect to its use in mainstream industrial process applications. A review of the various types of sensors that have been developed for industries such as power generation, water treatment and services, mining, and the oil and gas sector has been performed. A market overview is reported as well as a discussion of some of the factors limiting their penetration into these markets. Furthermore, the author’s make recommendations for future work that would potentially provide significant opportunity for the advancement of fiber Bragg grating sensor networks in these mainstream industries

Intensity based interrogation of optical fibre sensors for industrial automation and intrusion detection systems

In this study, the use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection and industrial automation systems has been demonstrated, with a particular focus on low cost, intensity-based, interrogation techniques. The use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection systems to secure residential, commercial, and industrial premises against potential security breaches has been extensively reviewed in this thesis. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is one form of optical fibre sensing that has been underutilised in applications such as in-ground, in-fence, and window and door monitoring, and addressing that opportunity has been a major goal of this thesis. Both security and industrial sensor systems must include some centralised intelligence (electronic controller) and ideally both automation and security sensor systems would be controlled and monitored by the same centralised system. Optical fibre sensor systems that could be used for either application have been designed, developed, and tested in this study, and optoelectronic interfaces for integrating these sensors with electronic controllers have been demonstrated. The versatility of FBG sensors means that they are also ideal for certain mainstream industrial applications. Two novel transducers have been developed in this work; a highly sensitive low pressure FBG diaphragm transducer and a FBG load cell transducer. Both have been designed to allow interrogation of the optical signal could occur within the housing of the individual sensors themselves. This is achieved in a simple and low cost manner that enables the output of the transducers to be easily connected to standard electronic controllers, such as programmable logic controllers. Furthermore, some of the nonlinear characteristics of FBG sensors have been explored with the aim of developing transducers that are inherently decoupled from strain and temperature interference. One of the major advantages of optical fibre sensors is their ability to be both time division and wavelength division multiplexed. The intensity-based interrogation techniques used here complement this attribute and are a major consideration when developing the transducers and optoelectronic circuits. A time division multiplexing technique, using transmit-reflect detection and incorporating a dual bus, has also been developed. This system architecture enables all the different optical fibre transducers on the network to have the same Bragg wavelength and hence the number of spare replacement transducers required is minimal. Moreover, sensors can be replaced in an online control system without disrupting the network. In addition, by analysing both the transmitted and reflected signals, problems associated with optical power fluctuations are eliminated and the intensity of the sensor signals is increased through differential amplification. Overall, the research addresses the limitations of conventional electrical sensors, such as susceptibility to corrosive damage in wet and corrosive environments, and risk of causing an explosion in hazardous environments, as well as the limitations of current stand-alone optical fibre sensor systems. This thesis supports more alert, reliable, affordable, and coordinated, control and monitoring systems in an on-line environment

Serially Connected Cantilever Beam-Based FBG Accelerometers: Design, Optimization and Testing

We focus on the design, optimization, fabrication, and testing of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) cantilever beam-based accelerometers to measure vibrations from active seismic sources in the external environment. These FBG accelerometers possess several advantages, such as multiplexing, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and high sensitivity. Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations, calibration, fabrication, and packaging of the simple cantilever beam-based accelerometer based on polylactic acid (PLA) are presented. The influence of the cantilever beam parameters on the natural frequency and sensitivity are discussed through FEM simulation and laboratory calibration with vibration exciter. The test results show that the optimized system has a resonance frequency of 75 Hz within a measuring range of 5–55 Hz and high sensitivity of ±433.7 pm/g. Finally, a preliminary field test is conducted to compare the packaged FBG accelerometer and standard electromechanical 4.5-Hz vertical geophones. Active-source (seismic sledgehammer) shots are acquired along the tested line, and both systems’ experimental results are analyzed and compared. The designed FBG accelerometers demonstrate suitability to record the seismic traces and to pick up the first arrival times. The system optimization and further implementation offer promising potential for seismic acquisitions

Advances in Fiber-Optic Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometric Physical and Mechanical Sensors: A Review

Fabry-Perot Interferometers Have Found a Multitude of Scientific and Industrial Applications Ranging from Gravitational Wave Detection, High-Resolution Spectroscopy, and Optical Filters to Quantum Optomechanics. Integrated with Optical Fiber Waveguide Technology, the Fiber-Optic Fabry-Perot Interferometers Have Emerged as a Unique Candidate for High-Sensitivity Sensing and Have Undergone Tremendous Growth and Advancement in the Past Two Decades with their Successful Applications in an Expansive Range of Fields. the Extrinsic Cavity-Based Devices, I.e., the Fiber-Optic Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometers (EFPIs), Enable Great Flexibility in the Design of the Sensitive Fabry-Perot Cavity Combined with State-Of-The-Art Micromachining and Conventional Mechanical Fabrication, Leading to the Development of a Diverse Array of EFPI Sensors Targeting at Different Physical Quantities. Here, We Summarize the Recent Progress of Fiber-Optic EFPI Sensors, Providing an overview of Different Physical and Mechanical Sensors based on the Fabry-Perot Interferometer Principle, with a Special Focus on Displacement-Related Quantities, Such as Strain, Force, Tilt, Vibration and Acceleration, Pressure, and Acoustic. the Working Principle and Signal Demodulation Methods Are Shown in Brief. Perspectives on Further Advancement of EFPI Sensing Technologies Are Also Discussed

Polymer optical fiber sensors in human life safety

The current state of research into polymer optical fiber (POF) sensors linked to safety in human life is summarized in this paper. This topic is directly related with new solutions for civil aircraft, structural health monitoring, healthcare and biomedicine fields. In the last years, the properties of polymers have been explored to identify situations offering potential advantages over conventional silica fiber sensing technology, replacing, in some cases, problematic electronic technology used in these mentioned fields, where there are some issues to overcome. POFs could preferably replace their silica counterparts, with improved performance and biocompatibility. Finally, new developments are reported which use the unique properties of POF

Development and Characterisation of a high performance Distributed Feedback Fibre Laser Hydrophone

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Review of fiber-optic pressure sensors for biomedical and biomechanical applications

As optical fibers revolutionize the way data is carried in telecommunications, the same is happening in the world of sensing. Fiber-optic sensors (FOS) rely on the principle of changing the properties of light that propagate in the fiber due to the effect of a specific physical or chemical parameter. We demonstrate the potentialities of this sensing concept to assess pressure in biomedical and biomechanical applications. FOSs are introduced after an overview of conventional sensors that are being used in the field. Pointing out their limitations, particularly as minimally invasive sensors, is also the starting point to argue FOSs are an alternative or a substitution technology. Even so, this technology will be more or less effective depending on the efforts to present more affordable turnkey solutions and peer-reviewed papers reporting in vivo experiments and clinical trials.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio