A FBG Tilt Sensor Fabricated Using 3D Printing Technique for Monitoring Ground Movement

Abstract

In this paper, 3D printing method and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing technology were combined to fabricate a simple and small size tilt sensor. The raw material for creating different sensor components was Polylactic Acid (PLA) material. Bare FBG sensors were directly inscribed into PLA material using fused deposition modeling (FDM) process for complete protection. Printing test using FDM process indicate that bare optical fiber cables successfully survived the FDM process even though the melted PLA materials approached a maximum temperature of around 220°. Two FBG sensors characterized by different wavelength values were symmetrically arranged inside a sensing unit for the measurement of the tilt angle in terms of their wavelength shifts. The minimum resolution and the measurement range of this new FBG tilt sensor were 0.084° and ±75°, respectively. The measurement performance of this new tilt sensor was also verified with the conventional tilt sensor. A small slope model was built up in the laboratory to examine the measurement performance of three FBG tilt sensors which were mounted at different depths inside the slope model. The measured horizontal displacement data from FBG tilt sensors were verified with the output data of the Linear Variable Displacement Transducer (LVDT) and the obtained maximum error was less than 3% when the maximum displacements are approached.