Novel fiber optic accelerometer system using geometric moiré fringe

This paper presents an innovative fiber optic accelerometer system for monitoring vibration of large-size structures. The system is composed of one (or multiple) sensor head and a control unit for driving the sensor and processing sensor data. The sensing mechanism is based on a novel integration of the moiré fringe phenomenon with fiber optics, resulting in accurate and reliable measurement. A prototype fiber optic accelerometer system has been successfully developed, including a sensor head, a low-cost control unit and a software package with a unique algorithm for processing the moiré fringe signals into accelerations with a high resolution. Finally, free vibration and shaking table tests were performed to identify the dynamic characteristics and demonstrate the high performance of the sensor system developed in this study.