Fiber grating sensor system for measuring key parameters during high speed

摘要

A fiber grating sensor system is used to measure key parameters that include pressure, strain and temperature at specific locations and at high speed. The system relies on spectral properties associated with the fiber grating sensors, the light source and the optical detection system to provide these capabilities. The system has been successfully applied to measurement of pressures up to 1,200,000 psi and by increasing the spectral width of the light source extensions of pressure measurements to 4,000,000 psi and higher are possible. Temperature change measurements have been made of 400 degrees C. over a period of 25 micro-seconds limited by the physical response of the fiber sensors and the output detector bandwidth both of which can be greatly improved by reducing fiber sizes and with improved detectors. Novel methods have been devised to lower cost and enable measurements with spatial location, speed and accuracy that have been very difficult or not yet achieved.

主权项

1. A fiber grating sensor system to measure spatial position, pressure and temperature with better than one microsecond resolution, comprising: a first light source being a broadband light source with at least one spectral edge or peak changing in optical power by more than ten percent per nanometer of spectral change which generates a first light beam; and a first optical coupler which captures said first light beam in first input optical fiber and directs it via a second optical fiber to a first fiber grating sensor with a predefined spectral shape, a second light beam which is a portion of said first light beam that reflects off said first fiber grating sensor and is directed back toward said first optical coupler and directed via a third optical fiber to a first optical detector with a predefined spectral response, the output from said first optical detector being directed toward a first electrical signal storage device.