Abstract
Hydraulic engineering built in the cold region, such as reservoirs and hydropower stations, is often threatened by static ice pressure from nature. Therefore, it is of vital significance to research the pressure variation in the growth and melting processes of the ice layer for the design and protection of hydraulic structures in cold regions. This paper introduces an optical fiber sensor system based on the fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy technology and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) pulse modulation technology. An electro-optic modulation scheme that relied on FPGA to generate optical pulses with adjustable pulse width and period is proposed, which is more suitable for the in-situ observation. In addition, the temperature stability and repeatability of the system are also discussed. This system was applied to the real-time detection of static ice pressure on the sidewall and bottom of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe during the ice growth and melting processes. The results indicate that the system has favorable stability and sensitivity, and the relationship obtained between the static ice pressure and temperature could provide some references for the field application in the future.
Highlights
IntroductionDue to the intimate contact with the ice layer, various hydraulic structures located here, such as oil platforms, bridge piers, and abutments, will be subjected to the pressure exerted by the ice layer [1,2]
The ice was melting to water (I’), and there was no static ice pressure at this time. From these two measurement results, we found that the static ice pressure on the sidewall at 10 cm (579.34 kPa), 13.5 cm (586.80 kPa), and 16.5 cm (578.38 kPa) was higher than that on the bottom
We proposed an field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based optical pulse generation scheme, which realized the generation of pulses with adjustable pulse width and period and reduced the system cost
Summary
Due to the intimate contact with the ice layer, various hydraulic structures located here, such as oil platforms, bridge piers, and abutments, will be subjected to the pressure exerted by the ice layer [1,2]. If the impact of drift ice collisions is not considered, the ice thickness and static ice pressure in still water will increase as the cumulative negative temperature increases [3,4]. In spring, when the ice cover absorbs more heat, its volume expands rapidly and will threaten the safety of hydraulic structures such as the earth dam slope, intake tower, and bridge pier [5,6,7,8,9]. When designing hydraulic facilities, the ice load of the whole cycle in winter must be considered
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