Modeling and testing of static pressure within an optical fiber cable spool using distributed fiber Bragg gratings

Based on the force analysis, we establish a theoretical model to study the static pressure distribution of the fiber cable spool for the fiber optic guided missile (FOG-M). Simulations indicate that for each fiber layer in the fiber cable spool, the applied static pressure on it asymptotically converges as the number of fiber layers increases. Using the distributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing technique, the static pressure of fiber cable layers in the spool on the cable winding device was measured. Experiments show that the Bragg wavelength of FBG in every layer varies very quickly at the beginning and then becomes gently as the subsequent fiber cable was twisted onto the spool layer by layer. Theoretical simulations agree qualitatively with experimental results. This technology provides us a real-time method to monitor the pressure within the fiber cable layer during the cable winding process.