UCLA
2002
Fiber Optic Sensors Fiber Optic Sensors
Active Materials Lab Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department UCLA
UCLA
Fiber Optic Fundamentals
Snells Law:
nisini = ntsint
Total Internal Reflection:
the critical angle is the value of i for which t is 90 sinc = nt /ni core higher n than cladding
Snells Law
Fibers:
Three kinds of fibers a) step index multimode b) graded index multimode c) single mode
Total Internal Reflection
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Types of Sensors
Types of Sensors:
Fiber optic sensors can be designed to measure or sense just about anything. A few examples include liquid level, chemical, pressure, electric field, vibration strain and temperature. The Active Materials Lab works exclusively with strain and temperature sensors. There are many types of sensor designs, including Bragg, IFPI (Intrinsic Fabry Perot Interferometer) and EFPI (Extrinsic Fabry Perot Interferometer). The Active Materials Lab works primarily with EFPI sensors.
EFPI Sensors:
EFPI sensors generally work as follows: Two fibers are inserted into a hollow core material. One of the fibers is connected to an instrumentation system. Light from the instrumentation system is sent down the length of the fiber, and some of this light reflects off of the end of the fiber (R1). The rest of the light continues through the gap, and some of the that light reflects off of the front face of the second fiber (R2). R1 and R2 travel back down the length of the fiber to the instrumentation system, forming an interference pattern. As the gap between the two fibers change, the interference pattern changes, as well. If the hollow core material expands or contracts, the gap size will change, and thus can be measured by the instrumentation system. Thus anything that can change the length of the hollow core material can be measured.
Diagram of Fiber Optic Strain Sensor from Luna Innovations
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Fiber Optic Sensors
Interference:
The diagrams below illustrate the effect of light interference. When R1 and R2 (see previous slide) are in phase, the two signals will constructively interfere, producing a signal with a larger amplitude, as shown in Figure 1a. When R1 and R2 are out of phase, they will destructively interfere, making the combined signal have a smaller amplitude. This is shown in Figure 1b. Principles of interference are classically studied with an interferometer, such as the Michelson Interferometer of Figure 2.
b
Figure 1 Constructive and Destructive Interference Figure 2 Michelson Interferometer
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UCLA EFPI Sensors
Temperature Sensors:
The UCLA EFPI temperature sensors use a stainless steel hollow core. When the hollow core expands or contracts due to temperature changes, the interference pattern changes, as described in previous slides. The sensor shown below was designed to be imbedded into composite structures. This design issue prompted the addition of an outer hollow core. This outer core mechanically decouples the sensor from the composites matrix material.
conductive paste optical fiber
inner core 635 m
125 m outer core 1.5 cm
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Luna Sensors
Strain Sensors:
The Active Materials Lab purchases strain sensors from Luna Innovations. They work on principles similar to the UCLA sensors, but they utilize a glass hollow core. Glass is used because it couples well with the matrix material of our composite coupons, making effective strain gauges. However, glass has a low CTE which allows the sensors to be immune from temperature changes.
Rosette of fiber optic strain gauges being imbedded in composite coupon