Abstract
At present, optical fiber microducts are coupled together by mechanical types of joints. Mechanical joints are thick, require a large space, and reduce the installation distance in multi-microduct installation. They may leak or explode in the blown fiber installation process. Mechanical joints are subjected to time dependent deterioration under long service times beneath the earth's surface. It may start with a small leakage, followed by damage due to water freezing inside the optical fiber microduct. Optical fiber microducts are made up of high-density polyethylene, which is considered most suitable for thermoelectric welding. For thermoelectric welding of two optical fiber microducts, the welding time should be one second, and should not cause any damage to the inner structure of the microducts that are being coupled. To fulfill these requirements, an LTspice simulation model for the welding system was developed and validated. The developed LTspice model has two parts. The first part models the power input to joule heating wire and the second part models the heat propagation inside the different layers of the optical fiber microduct and surrounding joint by using electro-thermal analogy. In order to validate the simulation results, a battery powered prototype welding system was developed and tested. The prototype welding system consists of a custom-built electrofusion joint and a controller board. A 40 volt 4 ampere-hour Li-Ion battery was used to power the complete system. The power drawn from the battery was controlled by charging and discharging of a capacitor bank, which makes sure that the battery is not overloaded. After successful welding, a pull strength test and an air pressure leakage test were performed to ensure that the welded joints met the requirements set by the mechanical joints. The results show that this new kind of joint and welding system can effectively replace mechanical joints in future optical fiber duct installations.
Highlights
Optical fiber technology is the backbone of modern telecommunication systems
OF THE POWER COMPARISON As the results in Figure 19 shows, the measured input voltage and current waveforms are quite close to the simulated input voltage and current waveforms of an optical fiber electrofusion (OFEF) joint
The maximum difference between average measured and average simulated power consumption for three duty cycles in Table 2 is around 5%. This difference in simulated and measured power can be due to manufacturing tolerances in the OFEF joints and their physical behavior during the heating cycle
Summary
Optical fiber technology is the backbone of modern telecommunication systems. In addition to its use in telecommunication, fiber-optic networks are being used for modern fiber-to-the-home and cable TV networks. Along with installations for new users, upgrade of existing fiber-optic networks is increasing due to increased data traffic demands. Fiber-optic cables are commonly installed in already buried conduits known as. When the fiber-optic cables are blown inside already buried microducts, pressurized air is used [3]. A fiber-optic microduct can measure up to 1200 meters, sometimes even more [1], [3]. It is often necessary to cut and join optical fiber microducts at different lengths. It is normal practice to bury more than the required optical fiber microducts for future repair and upgrade needs [3]
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