Performance of transmitted optical fiber hydrogen sensing system based on orthogonal demodulation method

Abstract

A transmitted optical fiber sensing system based on orthogonal demodulation algorithm is used for hydrogen detection in this paper. WO3/Pt fabricated by sol–gel method was used as sensing material. WO3 film reacts with hydrogen by the catalysis of Pt and refractive index of the sensing film changed, by measuring the transmitted optical power the concentration of hydrogen can be detected. Orthogonal demodulation algorithm was used to demodulate the weak transmitted optical intensity signals. Compared with the traditional ratio-type transmitted optical fiber hydrogen sensing system, the noise reduced by 28 times. The limit of detection is 495ppm and with good repeatability and stability. In order to improve the sensitivity of the system, three pieces of sensing film were used to increase the interaction length of the sensing material with hydrogen and the sensitivity increased by 2.592 times. With the orthogonal demodulated technique and multi pieces of sensing film, high sensitivity, fast response and low cost hydrogen sensing system was implemented and is very promising for the monitoring of hydrogen leakage in the field of hydrogen production, transportation, and storage.