High-sensitivity force measurement using optical tapered fiber with optical frequency-domain reflectometry

In modern society, the amount of data being transferred is growing at an exponential rate, about 2.5 quintillion bytes data created per day. Such data can be realized in the form of include the audio, video, or text. Furthermore, due to the many advantages of the optical fiber, including the low-cost, immunity to electromagnetic interface, light weight, and high carrier frequency, it is taking over the industry. The question then arises as how to diagnose the inner fault and maintain the integrity becomes the crux for the telecommunication system based on optical fiber. There are two main high-precision measurement methodologies to complete the task mentioned above: one is the optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR), which has been widely applied in technologies such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in faraway situations. The other one is optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR), which is also referred to as optical frequency modulated continuous wave (OFMCW) or chirped frequency measurement. Compared with the OTDR, the OFDR measures distance by comparing the phase change of the chirped incident optical signal and reflected signals to capture the distance information. Even though the OFDR has been proven to have many advantages over OTDR in terms of the high spatial resolution at μm level, low power consumption, and eye-friendliness, both the high complexity and cost significantly limit its applications. To overcome the above shortages in the OFDR system and expand this technology in the various applications, the following research was conducted. Firstly, since the optical tuning source utilized in OFDR is too expensive and complex to be implemented in-situ measurements, there are some researches completed in the tuning laser source control methods proposed to reduce the cost and complexity of this technology and fit the various applications. Additionally, to enhance the accuracy of the OFDR measuring, some tuning rate error compensating algorithms were introduced. Benefiting from the improved spatial resolution, the physical unclonable function (PUF) in the optical fiber can be achieved as its unique identification to sustain the data transferring security. Furthermore, even though the initial optical frequency (IOF) in OFDR has been disregarded in the distance measuring, it does influence the PUF reader precision. To fully analyze such effect, some research and IOF mitigating methods were proposed, in which a fast processing method for the PUF reader has been introduced by decreasing the calculating complexity. From the above research, a low-cost, accurate, and effective OFDR system has been

Optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) measurements are performed by recording the interference pattern of light backscattered by density fluctuations or Bragg gratings along the length of an optical fiber. Changes in local temperature or strain in the fiber cause shifts in the backscattered light spectrum, which can be calibrated to the applied temperature or strain. Comparing the backscattered optical spectra from each reflection site with a reference (unstrained) spectrum allows for quantification of local spectral shifts. While mature OFDR-based technologies can provide high-precision spatially distributed measurements over kilometer lengths, the post-processing approaches used to recover spectral shifts from raw optical intensity data can limit the use of OFDR in harsh environments. This paper presents a novel approach to post-processing OFDR data which extends the usability of optical fibers exposed to harsh environments. This approach is the first to use the spectral shift quality, calculated for two OFDR measurements, to identify an appropriate reference scan from which the spectral shift can be determined. Three experimental data sets are used to test the algorithm: (1) an optical fiber heated to >950°C, (2) an aluminum-embedded optical fiber under strain from differential thermal expansion, and (3) an optical fiber exposed to a total neutron flux of $2\times 10^{13}$ n/cm2/s over 40 hours in a nuclear test reactor. Results show that using a metric of quality to select an appropriate reference measurement extends the functional range of OFDR strain and temperature sensors. Furthermore, this algorithm can be applied to existing OFDR data.

Many important optical fiber components are based on tapered optical fibers. A taper made from a single-mode optical fiber can be used, e.g., as a chemical sensor, bio-chemical sensor, or beam expander. A fused pair of tapers can be used as a fiber directional coupler. Fiber tapers can be fabricated in several simple ways. However, a tapering apparatus is required for more sophisticated fabrication of fiber tapers. The paper deals with fabrication and characterization of fiber tapers made from a single-mode optical fiber. A tapering apparatus was built for producing devices based on fiber tapers. The apparatus is universal and enables one to taper optical fibers of different types by a method utilizing stretching a flame-heated section of a silica fiber. Fiber tapers with constant waist length and different waist diameters were fabricated. The transition region of each fiber taper monotonically decreased in diameter along its length from the untapered fiber to the taper waist. The fiber tapers were fabricated with a constant drawing velocity, while the central zone of the original single-mode fiber was heated along a constant length. The spectral transmissions of the manufactured fiber tapers with different parameters were measured by the cut-back method.

A distributed optical fiber grating sensing system with large capacity and high spatial resolution is presented. Since highdensity identical weak grating array was utilized as sensing fiber, the multiplexing number was greatly increased, meanwhile, optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) technology was used to implement high resolution distributed sensing system. In order to eliminate the nonlinear effect of tunable light source, a windowed FFT algorithm based on cubic spline interpolation was applied. The feasibility of the algorithm was experimentally testified, ultimately, the spatial resolution of system can reach mm-level. The influence of the crosstalk signal in the grating array on the OFDR system was analyzed. A method that a long enough delay fiber was added before the first FBG to remove crosstalk signal was proposed. The experiment was verified using an optical fiber with 113 uniform Bragg gratings at an interval of 10cm whose reflectivity are less than 1%. It demonstrates that crosstalk signal and measurement signal can be completely separated in the distance domain after adding a long enough delay fiber. Finally, the temperature experiment of distributed grating sensing system was carried out. The results display that each raster's center wavelength in the fiber link is independent of each other and the center wavelength drift has a good linear relationship with the temperature. The sensitivity of linear fitting is equal to 11.1pm/°C.

A new hardware configuration to correct nonlinear tuning affects in optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) is proposed. Unlike conventional correction methods, the new configuration does not require a separate auxiliary interferometer detection, which may eliminate the need for an extra detection device and an acquisition channel. In the proposed method, an intentional beat signal is introduced at the beginning of the OFDR spectrum, which is treated as an auxiliary interferometer to acquire tunable laser phase information for the nonlinear tuning correction. The proposed method may reduce the overall system cost, reduce the data acquisition time and computational load, and make system configuration simpler by eliminating the need for extra components. In this article, the feasibility of the proposed configuration is demonstrated by correcting nonlinear tuning affects using simulations and experiments in a ∼50 m long optical fiber. Distributed strain and temperature sensing are also performed in a 50 m optical fiber with the proposed new configuration.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, experimental results and related discussion of a portable bending enhancing silicone mold structure for biomedical applications in which a high-sensitive but low-cost force measurement structure with a large-dynamic range is required. Proposed system is composed of a replaceable parts like graphite coated Strathmore® 400 series Bristol paper and cheap RTV-2 silicone molds. The results shows that low-cost, portable and high-sensitive force and strain sensor systems can be realized for point-of-care biomedical applications in the future.

We present experimental results of distributed gain measurements from a dual-pumped (1050 nm +1550 nm) thulium-doped fiber amplifier using optical frequency-domain reflectometry. We show that significant reductions in total pump power and/or fiber length are realized with the addition of a few milliwatts at 1550 nm. For our experimental conditions, the addition of 5 mW of 1550 nm allows for a reduction of 100 mW of pump power at 1050 nm or a reduction of 44% of doped fiber length to reach the same gain as with 1050-nm pumping alone.

A novel OFDR processing algorithm is proposed to improve the measurable range. The high local similarity found between the reference and measurement Rayleigh scattering spectrum (ReS and MeS). The spectrum shift of the Rayleigh backscatter which is the function of strain is measured using an improved optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR). This method is improved by matching local ReS on MeS rather than a direct cross-correlation between whole ReS and MeS in conventional OFDR methods. By this method, a larger measurable range (0∼3000µε) OFDR method with a high level spatial resolution (3mm gauge) is experimentally achieved comparing to conventional OFDR methods.

The broad wavelength tuning range in optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR) enables high-spatial-resolution distributed strain sensing. The large wavelength tuning range of over tens of nanometers makes the issue of dispersion non-negligible; however, the influences of dispersion on the sensing performance in OFDR are seldom discussed in the literature. For high performance measurement, it is necessary to compensate strain induced delay to maintain high coherence between the reference measurement and the sensing measurement. In this work, we find out that the presence of group velocity dispersion introduces significant deviations in determining the delay in a distributed manner. The larger the applied strain is, the greater the induced delay deviation becomes. We also investigate the influences of the delay deviation on distributed strain demodulation based on conventional cross-correlation calculation, showing that high-spatial-resolution distributed strain measurement requires dispersion compensation which allows the delay to be accurately determined and compensated along the sensing fiber. The conclusion in this work indicate that for applications requiring specialty fibers or waveguides, or for scenarios demanding ultrahigh spatial resolution, dispersion influence should not be ignored and it needs to be compensated to enhance the performance.

Distributed fiber-optic vibration sensing based on phase extraction from optical reflectometry is discussed in this paper. The principles on the phase extraction from coherent phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry and time-gated digital optical frequency-domain reflectometry are introduced, and the experimental results of distributed vibration measurements based on the two techniques are demonstrated. To have a better understanding on the performance of the techniques, the phase extraction noise in the phase extraction process is analyzed. To solve the problem of existing measurement dead zones, the influence of Rayleigh fading phenomenon is investigated, and a solution of using statistical analysis to overcome this drawback is introduced and experimentally verified. With these improvements, long-range nondead-zone distributed vibration sensing techniques with linear response to external vibration signals based on phase extraction from optical reflectometry are realized.

In distributed microwave photonic (MWP) radar systems, the detection performance is highly sensitive to the quality of optical signals transmitted over the long fibers connecting the indoor and outdoor units. In this Letter, we propose an MWP radar system that, in addition to its standard range measurement capability, integrates optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) for distributed vibration sensing along the optical fibers. A carrier-suppressed double-sideband (CS-DSB) optical signal is generated in the indoor unit, which serves as a light source and the local reference for the OFDR, as well as a transmitted signal for the radar transmitter. For radar detection, an echo received from an antenna is sent back to the indoor unit, where it is mixed with the local reference to perform de-chirping. For OFDR, a beat signal is produced by the coherent interference of the backscattered Rayleigh signal with the local reference, which realizes distributed optical fiber sensing. The dual functions of the system are evaluated by an experiment. For range measurement, a resolution of 4.8 cm at a transmitted bandwidth of 4 GHz is obtained. For distributed sensing, a reflection point detection with a resolution of 6.7 cm and a vibration measurement with a spatial resolution of 6 m at a vibration frequency of 4 kHz are demonstrated. The experiment also verified that utilizing OFDR to determine the vibration frequency, its impact on radar detection performance can be mitigated through digital signal processing.

An SHM algorithm to detect damage size and location without the need of either strain or load reference was proposed and tested. The proposed methodology is based on the physical connection between the local signal scattering and the structural discontinuity, with respect to both geometrical distribution and time evolution. In detail, first order derivative is first applied, followed by a classical cross-correlation process to estimate the degree of relationship between the analysed signals. Deviations are quantified with respect to auto-correlation values. This approach was tested on a complex beam, made of two flat unidirectional carbon-epoxy tape skins and two C-shaped profile spars bonded together by a structural paste adhesive. Experiments consisted of making that test article undergo a 3-point bending by a dedicated tool, equipped with a linear actuator. In order to detect the debonding occurrences within the bonding line of the spar cap, optical fibres were integrated in the primary structure. Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry (OFDR) was applied, implementing a 2 m long fibre optic having a spatial resolution of 2.6 mm and interrogating at a max sampling rate of 250 Hz, to monitor the spar bonding line. The results showed that the SHM algorithm provided reliable measurements for both position and size of the disbonding, and pose the right bases for further investigations on larger aeronautic scale.KeywordsFiber opticDamage detectionComposite beamCrosscorrelation

As the security of optical fiber lines in data centers has attracted growing attention, it has become increasingly important to accurately characterize the fiber that is used. Optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) has been demonstrated as a means of identifying specific segments of optical fiber; however, OFDR measurements are limited in length due to initial optical frequency (IOF) variations. This Letter describes a detailed analysis of IOF and introduces a method to mitigate it in an OFDR system constructed using a semiconductor laser (SCL). Additionally, an algorithm is described that minimizes the calculating density necessary for OFDR-based optical fiber verification, reducing the calculating time required by an order of magnitude relative to prior techniques. Experiments demonstrate that the described method can be effectively applied to a range of application areas, ranging from centimeter to meter lengths of optical fiber, with an error equal rate (EER) of less than 1%.

High-resolution monitoring of soil infiltration using distributed fiber optic

This article explores the prospects of using spatially distributed optical fiber temperature sensors based on Rayleigh optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) technology in the continuous casting of molten steel. The measurement capability of the optical fiber sensors in a simulated steelmaking environment was demonstrated using a mock refractory-lined tundish, which was fabricated in-house. Single-mode optical fibers, contained in protective stainless-steel tubing, were embedded in the refractory lining of the mock tundish. The instrumented tundish was preheated up to a temperature of 960 °C (recorded at the surface of the working lining) before the molten steel pour. A low-alloy steel (AISI 4140 grade) was melted in a 200 lb (90.7 kg) coreless induction furnace and was poured into the instrumented preheated tundish. The embedded optical fiber sensors were used to measure the temperature distribution in the castable lining during the preheating process of the tundish and during its contact with molten steel. Temperatures were metered with a spatial resolution of 0.65 mm along the embedded optical fibers. The measurements were recorded with an update rate of 1 Hz. The maximum temperature recorded by the optical fiber sensors in the castable lining after the steel pour was <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$591^{\circ }\text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . The spatially continuous optical fiber sensors provided useful information on thermal gradients in the castable lining. Real-time monitoring of spatially distributed thermal profiles in the refractory lining can improve superheat control, reduce energy losses, detect refractory wear, and improve the quality of the cast.