FIBRE BRAGG SENSORS COMPARED WITH ELECTRICAL STRAIN GAUGES FOR USE IN FORCE MEASUREMENT - PROSPECTS AND POTENTIALS

• Abstract:

  This article deals with the technical properties of fiber Bragg gratings with regard to their use as the strain-sensitive element in force transducers.
  Electrical strain gages are widely used in modern, precise force transducers. The electrical strain gage provides both outstanding technical properties and cost-effectiveness.
  Besides the electrical strain gage, the measurement principle of fiber Bragg-based sensors has recently become established. First applications in experimental mechanics have shown that this technology offers a lot of potential.
  Optical strain gauges are available on the marked since one year and are proofed in many applications.
  These sensors are mainly based on so-called fiber Bragg gratings. Such a Bragg grating uses a great many reflection points at regular spacing. At each of these points, part of the radiated light is reflected. The reflected light interferes (constructive interference) and generates a reflection peak. This peak shows a characteristic wavelength which is dependent on the spacing of the reflection points.
  The following sketch shows a Bragg grating in a fibre and its influence on the spectrum of the transmitted and reflected light.
  This article presents the properties relevant to use in the manufacture of transducers such as:
  - Creep
  - Temperature behaviour
  - Drift
  - Electromagnetic compatibility
  and others and compares them with the properties of electrical strain gages.
• Keywords:

  optical strain measurement, Fibre-Bragg gratings, optical force measurement
• Download:

  IMEKO-WC-2009-TC3-144.pdf
• DOI:

  _unreg_wc-2009.144

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