Abstract
An epoxy packaged surface mountable fibre temperature sensor for engineering applications is presented in this paper. The temperature sensor is based on a macro-bend single-mode fibre loop employed in a ratiometric power measurement scheme and has a linear characteristic with temperature at a fixed wavelength and bend radius. The sensor head consists of a single turn of a bare bend sensitive single-mode fibre with an applied absorption coating. The temperature of the sensor head is varied up to 80 °C and the linearity of the response is studied with different applied absorption coatings. The sensor head is packaged in a low thermal expansion coefficient two-part epoxy for stability. Such a packaged sensor head can be directly attached to any structure for temperature measurements. The packaged sensor system shows a temperature resolution better than 0.5 °C. The impact of stress and strain on the fabricated sensor is investigated by applying an external load to the sensor and an estimation of magnitude of the stress- and strain-induced error in the temperature measurement of the system has been obtained. It is found that the impact of stress and strain is low and can be compensated, if necessary. A portable prototype of the sensor head and the interrogation system is also demonstrated in this paper. The demonstrated temperature sensing system could be used for a wide range of engineering applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 88-95 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Sensors and Actuators, A: Physical |
| Volume | 163 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Macro-bend fibre loop
- Ratiometric system
- Temperature sensor