Young’s Modulus-Independent Determination of Fibre Parameters for Rayleigh-Based Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry from Cryogenic Temperatures up to 353 K

The magnetic spectrometer AMS-100, which includes a superconducting coil, is designed to measure cosmic rays and detect cosmic antimatter in space. This extreme environment requires a suitable sensing solution to monitor critical changes in the structure such as the beginning of a quench in the supe...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Caroline Girmen, Clemens Dittmar, Thorsten Siedenburg, Markus Gastens, Michael Wlochal, Niels König, Kai-Uwe Schröder, Stefan Schael, Robert H. Schmitt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-05-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/10/4607
Description
Summary:The magnetic spectrometer AMS-100, which includes a superconducting coil, is designed to measure cosmic rays and detect cosmic antimatter in space. This extreme environment requires a suitable sensing solution to monitor critical changes in the structure such as the beginning of a quench in the superconducting coil. Rayleigh-scattering-based distributed optical fibre sensors (DOFS) fulfil the high requirements for these extreme conditions but require precise calibration of the temperature and strain coefficients of the optical fibre. Therefore, the fibre-dependent strain and temperature coefficients <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>K</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">T</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>K</mi><mi>ϵ</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> for the temperature range from 77 K to 353 K were investigated in this study. The fibre was integrated into an aluminium tensile test sample with well-calibrated strain gauges to determine the fibre’s <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>K</mi><mi>ϵ</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> independently of its Young’s modulus. Simulations were used to validate that the strain caused by changes in temperature or mechanical conditions was the same in the optical fibre as in the aluminium test sample. The results indicated a linear temperature dependence of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>K</mi><mi>ϵ</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> and a non-linear temperature dependence of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>K</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">T</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula>. With the parameters presented in this work, it was possible to accurately determine the strain or temperature of an aluminium structure over the entire temperature range from 77 K to 353 K using the DOFS.
ISSN:1424-8220