Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation
Monitoring fluid flow rates is imperative for a variety of industries including biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, the food industry, and the oil and gas industries. We propose a flow meter that, unlike turbine or pressure-based sensors, is not flow intrusive, requires zero maintenance, h...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/2/355 |
| _version_ | 1797415515686174720 |
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| author | Alin Jderu Marcelo A. Soto Marius Enachescu Dominik Ziegler |
| author_facet | Alin Jderu Marcelo A. Soto Marius Enachescu Dominik Ziegler |
| author_sort | Alin Jderu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Monitoring fluid flow rates is imperative for a variety of industries including biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, the food industry, and the oil and gas industries. We propose a flow meter that, unlike turbine or pressure-based sensors, is not flow intrusive, requires zero maintenance, has low risk of clogging, and is compatible with harsh conditions. Using optical fiber sensing, we monitor the temperature distribution along a fluid conduit. Pulsed heat injection locally elevates the fluid’s temperature, and from the propagation velocity of the heat downstream, the fluid’s velocity is determined. The method is experimentally validated for water and ethanol using optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR) with millimetric spatial resolution over a 1.2 m-long conduit. Results demonstrate that such sensing yields accurate data with a linear response. By changing the optical fiber interrogation to time-domain distributed sensing approaches, the proposed technique can be scaled to cover sensing ranges of several tens of kilometers. On the other extreme, miniaturization for instance by using integrated optical waveguides could potentially bring this flow monitoring technique to microfluidic systems or open future avenues for novel “lab-in-a-fiber” technologies with biomedical applications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:49:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fc15c18692094de69bfb5b89751a7ed6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:49:47Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-fc15c18692094de69bfb5b89751a7ed62023-12-03T12:19:01ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-01-0121235510.3390/s21020355Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat PropagationAlin Jderu0Marcelo A. Soto1Marius Enachescu2Dominik Ziegler3S.C. NanoPRO START MC S.R.L., Oltenitei, No. 388, District 4, 041337 Bucharest, RomaniaDepartment of Electronic Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, 2390123 Valparaíso, ChileCenter for Surface Science and Nanotechnology (CSSNT), University Politehnica Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, RomaniaS.C. NanoPRO START MC S.R.L., Oltenitei, No. 388, District 4, 041337 Bucharest, RomaniaMonitoring fluid flow rates is imperative for a variety of industries including biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, the food industry, and the oil and gas industries. We propose a flow meter that, unlike turbine or pressure-based sensors, is not flow intrusive, requires zero maintenance, has low risk of clogging, and is compatible with harsh conditions. Using optical fiber sensing, we monitor the temperature distribution along a fluid conduit. Pulsed heat injection locally elevates the fluid’s temperature, and from the propagation velocity of the heat downstream, the fluid’s velocity is determined. The method is experimentally validated for water and ethanol using optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR) with millimetric spatial resolution over a 1.2 m-long conduit. Results demonstrate that such sensing yields accurate data with a linear response. By changing the optical fiber interrogation to time-domain distributed sensing approaches, the proposed technique can be scaled to cover sensing ranges of several tens of kilometers. On the other extreme, miniaturization for instance by using integrated optical waveguides could potentially bring this flow monitoring technique to microfluidic systems or open future avenues for novel “lab-in-a-fiber” technologies with biomedical applications.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/2/355distributed optical fiber sensingoptical frequency-domain reflectometryflow rate monitoringflow diagnostics |
| spellingShingle | Alin Jderu Marcelo A. Soto Marius Enachescu Dominik Ziegler Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation Sensors distributed optical fiber sensing optical frequency-domain reflectometry flow rate monitoring flow diagnostics |
| title | Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation |
| title_full | Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation |
| title_fullStr | Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation |
| title_short | Liquid Flow Meter by Fiber-Optic Sensing of Heat Propagation |
| title_sort | liquid flow meter by fiber optic sensing of heat propagation |
| topic | distributed optical fiber sensing optical frequency-domain reflectometry flow rate monitoring flow diagnostics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/2/355 |
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