Fiber Bragg Grating Temperature Sensor for Defence and Industrial Applications

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) temperature sensor suitable for naval applications like temperature monitoring of onboard ships. The Bragg gratings used here have a reflection Bragg wavelength of 1550 nm and are inscribed by phase mask technique using ultraviolet (UV) laser beam at 255.3 nm. The high‐resolution temperature sensor has been designed and developed based on the principle of converting the strain to temperature. This is achieved by using bimetallic configuration. Here lead and tungsten metals are used. The expansion of lead is concentrated on the Bragg grating, thus imparting strain on it. The wavelength shift with change of temperature is recorded with optical spectrum analyzer. The minimum temperature that could be measured accurately by the sensor with repeatability is of the order of 10−2. We have achieved thermal sensitivity of 46 pm/°C and 72 pm/°C for sensor lengths (length of the metallic strips) of 60 mm and 100 mm respectively. The thermal sensitivity achieved is approximately 3.5 times and 5.5 times that of bare FBG with thermal sensitivity of 13 pm/°C for the respective sensor lengths. This type of sensor can play vital role in defence and industrial applications like monitoring fresh water/lubricating oil temperatures of machinery in onboard ships, temperature monitoring of airframe of the aircraft, aircraft engine control system sensors, temperature measurement of hot gases from propellant combustion to protect the rocket motor casing, monitoring and control of temperature of copper bars of the power generators etc.