Bend-enhanced fiber optic sensors

Lee A. Danisch

doi:10.1117/12.141245

5 March 1993 Bend-enhanced fiber optic sensors

Lee A. Danisch

Proceedings Volume 1795, Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors X; (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.141245
Event: Fibers '92, 1992, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

This paper describes novel bend enhanced fiber (BEF) sensors used to make continuous, linear, real-time measurements of curvatures, which often relate more directly than strains to the control of vibration and position. BEF sensors are made by treating optical fibers to have an optically absorptive zone along a thin axial stripe a few millimeters long. Light transmission through the fiber past this zone then becomes a robust function of curvature, three orders of magnitude more sensitive to bending than in the untreated fiber. Directionality and polarity of curvature are preserved in the transmission function, over a linear range covering five orders of magnitude, centered about zero curvature. Thus, BEF sensors are curvature-measuring optical analogs of elongation-measuring resistance strain gauges, with similar sensitivity. BEF sensors add little or no thickness to the fiber, can be instrumented with simple analog electronics, and have been successfully embedded in composites. Results of dynamic curvature measurements are included, along with characterization data for BEF sensors made with plastic and silica fibers as small as 125 microns.

Citation Download Citation

Lee A. Danisch "Bend-enhanced fiber optic sensors", Proc. SPIE 1795, Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors X, (5 March 1993); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.141245

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