Use Of Fiber Bragg Gratings Research Articles

Theoretical analysis and coating thickness determination of a dual layer metal coated FBG sensor for sensitivity enhancement at cryogenic temperatures

Use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor is very appealing for sensing low temperature and strain in superconducting magnets because of their miniature size and the possibility of accommodating many sensors in a single fiber. The main drawback is their low intrinsic thermal sensitivity at low temperatures below 120 K. Approaching cryogenic temperatures, temperature changes lower than a few degrees Kelvin cannot be resolved, since they do not cause an appreciable shift of the wavelength diffracted by a bare FBG sensor. To improve the thermal sensitivity and thermal inertia below 77 K, the Bare FBG (BFBG) sensor can be coated with high thermal expansion coefficient materials. In this work, different metal were considered for coating the FBG sensor. For theoretical investigation, a double layered circular thick wall tube model has been considered to study the effect on sensitivity due to the mechanical properties like Young’s modulus, Thermal expansion coefficient, Poisson’s ratio of selected materials at a various cryogenic temperatures. The primary and the secondary coating thickness for a dual layer metal coated FBG sensor have been determined from the above study. The sensor was then fabricated and tested at cryogenic temperature range from 4-300 K. The cryogenic temperature characteristics of the tested sensors are reported.

Experimental research on damage detecting in composite materials with FBG sensors under low frequency cycling

This paper discusses the problems associated with the use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors to detect internal damage to composite specimens under low frequency cycling. This work utilized FBG sensor embedded cantilever beam specimens with and without known damage. FBG sensor measurement parameters which can reflect the location and degree of damage were obtained. Finally, the results obtained from the FBG sensors were compared to theoretical strain deviations, as calculated using ANSYS, to confirm the feasibility and range of sensitivity of FBG sensors for damage monitoring of composite material specimens. The research shows that FBG sensors can be used in detecting damage in composite materials under low frequency cycling and when the FBG senor is within 15mm of the extent of the damage is over 2mm.

Structural health monitoring on an unmanned aerial vehicle wing's beam based on fiber Bragg gratings and pattern recognition techniques

Composite materials have been extensively used on new aircraft airframes because of their advantages over metallic materials. This represents a difficulty for damage detection, a vital task for safety on the aerospace industry, as most nondestructive testing techniques are not effective on these materials since those usually present internal failures like delaminations which are difficult to detect. A miniaturized strain acquisition and wireless transmission system is presented alongside with a novel technique for structural behavior assessment, based on the use of Fiber Bragg Gratings to measure strains and non-supervised classification techniques to recognize different operational conditions. Operational tests were performed on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles wing's beam, made of composite materials with the sensors embedded during its manufacturing. Strain measurements were processed using an Optimal Baseline Selection methodology. The tests performed proved the system's capability to identify and separate different operational conditions for a healthy structure, based on the analysis of its strain fields. The implementation of this methodologies can lead to perform real-time damage detection on aerospace complex structures made of composite materials.

Thermal Monitoring of Photovoltaic module using Optical Fiber Sensors

This paper proposes the use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) in thermal monitoring of photovoltaic (PV) modules. Results acquired from FBG sensors were compared with two commonly used temperature sensing techniques in PV modules: PT100 sensors and infrared cameras. The experiments were performed using a PV module in actual operating conditions (varying ambient temperature and wind speed). Temperature changes in PV module were monitored with 27 FBG sensors installed on its front surface. During the experiments the ambient temperature, intensity of solar radiation and wind velocity were also monitored. The acquired results showed that FBG sensing technology has a potential for the proposed application.

Design and Feasibility Assessment of a Magnetic Resonance-Compatible Smart Textile Based on Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors for Respiratory Monitoring

Comfortable and easy to wear systems are gaining popularity for monitoring physiological parameters. Among others, smart textiles based on fiber optic sensors have shown promising results for respiratory monitoring and applications in magnetic resonance (MR) environment. The aim of this paper was to design, fabricate, and assess on healthy volunteers a smart textile based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors for respiratory monitoring. The new design was driven by the chest wall kinematics analysis performed by a marked-based motion capture system. The proposed textile shows promising performances for the non-intrusive monitoring of both compartmental and global volumetric parameters over time. Moreover, the use of FBGs makes the system MR-compatible. This feature was tested on two volunteers. The system did neither cause any image artifacts nor discomfort to the volunteers. This promising result encourages future developments to investigate the feasibility of the proposed smart textile for long-term observation of respiratory parameters, for patients monitoring during MR scan, and during sport activities in athletes.

Performance Analysis of an Optical System Using Dispersion Compensation Fiber & Linearly Chirped Apodized Fiber Bragg Grating

In this paper, a proposal for analyzing the performance of an optical system by using dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) and linear chirped apodized fiber Bragg grating (FBG) has been put forth. Both systems have three different schemes pre, post and symmetrical. Various parameters used for this analysis are input power, distance & input bit rate. Performance is analyzed in terms of Q factor, Bit Error Rate (BER) and Eye Diagram. It is found that use of FBG as a dispersion compensating element gives better system performance as compared to DCF.

Comparison of Fabry – Perot Filter of Fiber Bragg Grating for Visible and Ultraviolet Spectra

<p>The use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) as Fabry – Perot filter has been successfully developed for visible light and ultraviolet spectra. The characteristic of FBG is analyzed by using computational model with Transfer Matrix Method by order 2 with the coupled mode theory. The reflectivity, length of grating and bandwidth are parameters to determine the performance of FGB with laser source of 1 mW for 250 – 350 nm, ultraviolet and 380 – 780 nm, visible light. The simulation is also carried out by various grating from 0.5 cm – 9.5 cm with increment step of 1 cm. The simulation result showed that there is the filter discrepancy for maximum peak. This design of FGB can be used as a filter. Only selected wavelength is allowed to transmit the signal until the end of the optical fiber.</p>

Comparison of Fabry – Perot Filter of Fiber Bragg Grating for Visible and Ultraviolet Spectra

<p>The use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) as Fabry – Perot filter has been successfully developed for visible light and ultraviolet spectra. The characteristic of FBG is analyzed by using computational model with Transfer Matrix Method by order 2 with the coupled mode theory. The reflectivity, length of grating and bandwidth are parameters to determine the performance of FGB with laser source of 1 mW for 250 – 350 nm, ultraviolet and 380 – 780 nm, visible light. The simulation is also carried out by various grating from 0.5 cm – 9.5 cm with increment step of 1 cm. The simulation result showed that there is the filter discrepancy for maximum peak. This design of FGB can be used as a filter. Only selected wavelength is allowed to transmit the signal until the end of the optical fiber.</p>

Large Scale Applications Using FBG Sensors: Determination of In-Flight Loads and Shape of a Composite Aircraft Wing

Technological advances have enabled the development of a number of optical fiber sensing methods over the last few years. The most prevalent optical technique involves the use of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. These small, lightweight sensors have many attributes that enable their use for a number of measurement applications. Although much literature is available regarding the use of FBGs for laboratory level testing, few publications in the public domain exist of their use at the operational level. Therefore, this paper gives an overview of the implementation of FBG sensors for large scale structures and applications. For demonstration, a case study is presented in which FBGs were used to determine the deflected wing shape and the out-of-plane loads of a 5.5-m carbon-composite wing of an ultralight aerial vehicle. The in-plane strains from the 780 FBG sensors were used to obtain the out-of-plane loads as well as the wing shape at various load levels. The calculated out-of-plane displacements and loads were within 4.2% of the measured data. This study demonstrates a practical method in which direct measurements are used to obtain critical parameters from the high distribution of FBG sensors. This procedure can be used to obtain information for structural health monitoring applications to quantify healthy vs. unhealthy structures.

Ecosmart Reinforcement for a Masonry Polycentric Pavilion Vault

In the cultural life of modern societies great importance has acquired the preservation of existing and, in particular, ancient architectural heritage. With the inherent historical aspects, the economic implications have to be taken into account as well. Indeed, especially European cities and countries receive significant economic advantages by the existence of monuments and ancient suburbs. In this context, structural maintenance, strengthening and monitoring has gained an important academic and professional impulse. The present paper aims to present the results of a real scale experimental work regarding the application of an innovative seismic retrofitting technique for masonry walls and vaults by Hydraulic Lime Mortar strengthened by Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer textile grids (HLM-GFRP) embedding new sensing systems as fiber optical sensors. The real scale specimen is a masonry polycentric pavilion vault that was damaged during the L’Aquila earthquake of April 2009. The need of eco compatibility of bonding material with masonry support implies the use of HLM-GFRP as strengthening system. On the other hand, the use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) has a large number of advantages in opposite to electrical measuring methods. Example are: small sensor dimensions, low weight as well as high static and dynamic resolution of measured values, distributed sensing feature allowing to detect anomalies in load transfer between reinforcement and substrate and the location of eventual cracking patterns. A suitable Finite Element (FE) model is developed both to assess the effectiveness of the HLM-GFRP strengthening layers in retrofitting of the masonry vault and to define the strain field essential to the design of the FBG sensors network.

Adaptive Performance Improvement of Fiber Bragg Grating in Radio over Fiber System

The combination of Radio Frequency and Optical Fiber has resulted high capacity transmission at lower costs components and makes Radio over Fiber as a current trend of large broadband communication. In Fiber optics field, the use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) was been proposed in recent research with different purpose of uses. However, the compensation of dispersion method of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) can boost significantly the system performance. This paper investigates the performance capacity improvement of adaptive Radio over Fiber system. The system design was performed using OptiSystem 7.0 software, which 10 Gb/s Non Return to Zero (NRZ) signal was launched into 50 Km Universal Mode Fiber and Fiber Bragg Grating was used as a compensator of dispersion before frequency up conversion. Therefore, the system performances were investigated by comparing the Bit Error Rate (BER) and Q-factors of Positive Intrinsic Negative (PIN) and Ultrafast Avalanche Photodiode (APD) as optical receivers. The Eye diagram analyzer showed acceptable improvement due to use of Fiber Bragg Grating as a compensator of dispersion.

Cuspal Displacement Induced by Bulk Fill Resin Composite Polymerization: Biomechanical Evaluation Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors.

Polymerization shrinkage is a major concern to the clinical success of direct composite resin restorations. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of polymerization shrinkage strain of two resin composites on cuspal movement based on the use of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. Twenty standardized Class II cavities prepared in upper third molars were allocated into two groups (n = 10). Restorations involved the bulk fill placement of conventional microhybrid resin composite (Esthet•X® HD, Dentsply DeTrey) (Group 1) or flowable “low-shrinkage” resin composite (SDR™, Dentsply DeTrey) (Group 2). Two FBG sensors were used per restoration for real-time measurement of cuspal linear deformation and temperature variation. Group comparisons were determined using ANCOVA (α = 0.05) considering temperature as the covariate. A statistically significant correlation between cuspal deflection, time, and material was observed (p < 0.01). Cuspal deflection reached 8.8 μm (0.23%) and 7.8 μm (0.20%) in Groups 1 and 2, respectively. When used with bulk fill technique, flowable resin composite SDR™ induced significantly less cuspal deflection than the conventional resin composite Esthet•X® HD (p = 0.015) and presented a smoother curve slope during the polymerization. FBG sensors appear to be a valid tool for accurate real-time monitoring of cuspal deformation.

Thermal Expansion Measurements in Fresh and Saline Ice Using Fiber Optic Strain Gauges and Multipoint Temperature Sensors Based on Bragg Gratings

This paper describes the use of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors to investigate the thermomechanical properties of saline ice. FBG sensors allowed laboratory measurements of thermal expansion of ice samples with a range of different sizes and geometries. The high sampling frequency, accuracy, and resolution of the FBG sensors provide good quality data across a temperature range from 0°C to −20°C. Negative values of the effective coefficient of thermal expansion were observed in ice samples with salinities 6 ppt, 8 ppt, and 9.4 ppt. A model is formulated under which structural transformations in the ice, caused by temperature changes, can lead to brine transfer from closed pockets to permeable channels, and vice versa. This model is compared to experimental data. Further, in experiments with confined floating ice, heating as well as thermal expansion due to vertical migration of liquid brine, caused by under-ice water pressure, was observed.

FIBER Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor for estimation of Crack Mouth Opening Displacement (CMOD) in concrete

Crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) is one of the important parameters for characterizing the fracture properties in concrete. Amongst various optical fiber senors, Fiber Bragg gratings are (FBG) being used for structural health monitoring in the recent times. Very few reports exist in literature for use of CMOD estimation using FBG sensors. We report here, the use of FBG based sensor for the estimation of CMOD in plain concrete beams prepared as per recommendations of Reunion Internationale des Laboratoires et Experts des Materiaux, Systems de Construction et Ouvrages (RILEM) and subjected to three point bend test in a digitally controlled Universal Testing Machine (UTM). The results are compared with Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) and a good agreement is found. The FBG sensor's resolution is better than LVDT beyond the peak stress.

Use of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for stable and tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser with single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) output

In this demonstration, we propose and investigate a stable C-band erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser with compound-ring cavity. To achieve wavelength tunability with single-longitudinal-mode (SML) output, the sub-ring scheme and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) are used inside the ring cavity. Here, different lasing wavelengths can be selected by employing different Bragg wavelengths of FBGs. In this experiment, the obtained optical signal to noise ratios (OSNRs) and output powers are larger than 44.5 dB and 8.0 dBm respectively in the tuning range of 1531.70–1547.88 nm. Moreover, the output wavelength and power fluctuations of the proposed EDF laser are less than 0.02 nm and 0.1 dB in an observation time of 30 min, respectively.

Fiber Bragg grating for pressure monitoring of full composite lightweight epoxy sleeve strengthening system for submarine pipeline

This work investigates the use of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for monitoring of pressure in a full composite lightweight epoxy sleeve strengthening system for offshore oil and gas pipeline. An FBG incorporated within the polyethylene sleeve served as an indicator of increasing pressure and displacement inside the pipeline. The wavelength shift of the FBG increased linearly with the increment of pressure and displacement, producing measured sensitivity of up to 0.8831 nm/kN and 0.902 nm/mm, respectively. The effect of temperature on the embedded sensor was also analyzed and it was found that the temperature sensitivity of the sensor below 55 °C was only 9.04 pm/°C. The excellent pressure sensitivity and its minimal susceptibility to temperature further accentuate the potential of fiber-based sensor as an effective and accurate alternative for pipeline integrity monitoring.

Deflection Monitoring Method Using Fiber Bragg Gratings Applied to Tracking Particle Detectors

This paper proposes the use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) for the deflection monitoring of a micromegas (MM) tracking particle detector to be installed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research during a major upgrade of the experiment ATLAS within 2018. MM detectors are designed to reach high spatial and time resolution, even if the design is not yet finalized. One mandatory issue for the MM detector is a precise monitoring of the deflection of the drift and read-out electrodes and/or of the panel hosting the electrodes. To this aim, FBG strain sensors are proposed and experimentally investigated as a sensing solution to monitor the strain state of the detector support panel hosting the drift and read-out electrodes. Finally, simple postprocessing analysis based on classical beam theory considering a rigid body permits calculating the panel deflection. Preliminary experimental results on first prototypes of small and large detector panels are presented and discussed.

Fiber Bragg gratings for low-temperature measurement.

We demonstrate the use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as a monolithic temperature sensor from ambient to liquid nitrogen temperatures, without the use of any auxiliary embedding structure. The Bragg gratings, fabricated in three different types of fibers and characterized with a high density of points, confirm a nonlinear thermal sensitivity of the fibers. With a conventional interrogation scheme it is possible to have a resolution of 0.5 K for weak pure-silica-core FBGs and 0.25 K using both boron-doped and germanium-doped standard fibers at 77 K. We quantitatively show for the first time that the nonlinear thermal sensitivity of the FBG arises from the nonlinearity of both thermo-optic and thermal expansion coefficients, allowing consistent modeling of FBGs at low temperatures.

Experimental and numerical analysis of a hybrid FBG long gauge sensor for structural health monitoring

This paper presents a new long gauge sensor for structural health monitoring based on the use of fiber Bragg gratings. The proposed sensor has the advantage over existing sensors that it does not require prestressing of the optical fiber. The development consisted of numerical studies complemented by experimental tests to analyze: (1) the strain transfer between the sensor and the host structure; (2) the influence of sensor axial stiffness on the structural behavior of the host structure; (3) the influence of the mechanical properties of the adhesive used to fix the sensor and (4) the failure modes of the sensor (buckling and shear stress of sensor anchors).

Damage detection in composite materials structures under variable loads conditions by using fiber Bragg gratings and principal component analysis, involving new unfolding and scaling methods

An innovative methodology based on the use of fiber Bragg gratings as strain sensors and strain field pattern recognition is proposed for damage detection in composite materials structures. The strain field pattern recognition technique is based on principal component analysis. Damage indices ( T2 and Q) and detection thresholds are presented. New techniques for unfolding and scaling tridimensional matrices arrays obtained from structures working under variable load conditions are presented.