A Thermal Performance Analysis and Comparison of Fiber Coils with the D-CYL Winding and QAD Winding Methods

The thermal performance under variable temperature conditions of fiber coils with double-cylinder (D-CYL) and quadrupolar (QAD) winding methods is comparatively analyzed. Simulation by the finite element method (FEM) is done to calculate the temperature distribution and the thermal-induced phase shi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xuyou Li, Weiwei Ling, Kunpeng He, Zhenlong Xu, Shitong Du
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-06-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/6/900
Description
Summary:The thermal performance under variable temperature conditions of fiber coils with double-cylinder (D-CYL) and quadrupolar (QAD) winding methods is comparatively analyzed. Simulation by the finite element method (FEM) is done to calculate the temperature distribution and the thermal-induced phase shift errors in the fiber coils. Simulation results reveal that D-CYL fiber coil itself has fragile performance when it experiences an axially asymmetrical temperature gradient. However, the axial fragility performance could be improved when the D-CYL coil meshes with a heat-off spool. Through further simulations we find that once the D-CYL coil is provided with an axially symmetrical temperature environment, the thermal performance of fiber coils with the D-CYL winding method is better than that with the QAD winding method under the same variable temperature conditions. This valuable discovery is verified by two experiments. The D-CYL winding method is thus promising to overcome the temperature fragility of interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes (IFOGs).
ISSN:1424-8220