We present an optical bend sensor based on a Bragg grating written in an eccentric core polymer optical fibre. The grating wavelength shifts are studied as a function of bend curvature and fibre orientation and the device exhibits strong fibre orientation dependence, wide bend curvature range of ± 22.7 m -1 and high bend sensitivity of 63 pm/m -1 , which is 80 times higher than the reported sensor based on an offset-FBG in standard single mode silica fibre.
In this paper, we report on the strain and pressure testing of highly flexible skins embedded with Bragg grating sensors recorded in either silica or polymer optical fibre. The photonic skins, with a size of 10cm x 10cm and thickness of 1mm, were fabricated by embedding the polymer fibre or silica fibre containing Bragg gratings in Sylgard 184 from Dow Corning. Pressure sensing was studied using a cylindrical metal post placed on an array of points across the skin. The polymer fibre grating exhibits approximately 10 times the pressure sensitivity of the silica fibre and responds to the post even when it is placed a few centimetres away from the sensing fibre. Although the intrinsic strain sensitivities of gratings in the two fibre types are very similar, when embedded in the skin the polymer grating displayed a strain sensitivity approximately 45 times greater than the silica device, which also suffered from considerable hysteresis. The polymer grating displayed a near linear response over wavelength shifts of 9nm for 1% strain. The difference in behaviour we attribute to the much greater Young’s modulus of the silica fibre (70 GPa) compared to the polymer fibre (3 GPa)
We describe our recent progress in polymer fibre Bragg grating technology, including the writing of the first FBGs in TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer, enhancements to photosensitivity brought about by dopants and studies on grating annealing.
A highly flexible sensing skin with embedded polymer optical fibre Bragg gratings is characterised The response to pressure and strain compare favourably to a similar skin instrumented with silica fibre Bragg grating sensors.
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