Fabrication and testing of FBG sensor-based one-dimensional shock accelerometer attached to novel 3D printed structure

Abstract

This study presents an FBG-based one-dimensional shock accelerometer fabricated by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology. The bare fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor is fixed to the 3D-printed elastomer structure. The dimension of the sensor was simulated by the finite element method to explore the customizability of the acceleration sensor. The deformation in the elastic material structure leads to a change in the wavelength of the FBG sensor, and it is observed that the total Bragg wavelength shift over the acceleration range was recorded as 2.53 nm, corresponding to an acceleration sensitivity of 1.16 pm/g with a randomly generated acceleration between 655 g and 2635 g (1 g = 9.81 m/s2). A linear analysis showed that the linear values of the data obtained in the experiments reached above 96%. A comparison of the accelerometer signal obtained from the piezoelectric accelerometer data with the FBG accelerometer shows an excellent match in pulse amplitudes with pulse durations of only about 100 μs each time the acceleration occurs and the proposed sensor operating frequency is from 200 to 3000 Hz. The proposed FBG acceleration sensor is based on 3D printing technology, so it also inherits the outstanding advantages of this technology such as fast manufacturing time, saving production costs, and especially the ability to easily customize based on the size change of the structure, weight of mass block or the printed material.