Fiber-optic accelerometer having cantilevered acceleration-sensitive mass

摘要

An optical fiber accelerometer with a rectilinear actuator, such as a push rod, acting on a middle region of an optical fiber pass tautly strung between two supports so that linear actuator motion during sensed acceleration causes lateral displacement of the pass's middle region causing nonlinear (i.e., quadratic) strain in the fiber. This nonlinear response allows the accelerometer to detect acceleration signals in a noisy, low-frequency signal environment through use of a high frequency signal carrier whose amplitude is determined by a low-frequency measured acceleration signal using an optical fiber interferometer.