Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6888297 | Optical Fiber Technology | 2018 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
In this work, a cost-effective procedure to manufacture optical fiber pressure sensors is presented. This has a high relevance for integration in robotic exoskeletons or for gait plantar pressure monitoring within the physical rehabilitation scenarios, among other applications. The sensing elements are based on Fabry-Perot interferometric (FPI) micro-cavities, created from the recycling of optical fibers previously destroyed by the catastrophic fuse effect. To produce the pressure sensors, the fiber containing the FPI micro-cavities was embedded in an epoxy resin cylinder used as pressure transducer and responsible to transfer the pressure applied on its surface to the optical fiber containing the FPI micro-cavity. Before the embedding process, some FPI sensors were also characterized to strain variations. After that, the effect of the encapsulation of the FPI structure into the resin was assessed, from which a slight decrease on the FPI interferogram fringes visibility was verified, indicating a small increase in the micro-cavity length. Up on the sensors characterization, a linear dependence of the wavelength shift with the induced pressure was obtained, which leads to a maximum sensitivity of 59.39â¯Â±â¯1.7â¯pm/kPa. Moreover, direct dependence of the pressure sensitivity with the micro-cavity volume and length was found.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Computer Science
Computer Networks and Communications
Authors
M. Fátima Domingues, Camilo A. Rodriguez, Joana Martins, Cátia Tavares, Carlos Marques, Nélia Alberto, Paulo André, Paulo Antunes,