Seminars Archive

Fibre Bragg Grating sensors for structural and temperature monitoring.

Abstract
A short introduction to Fiber Bragg Grating technology will be given, followed by a presentation of expertise gained in ENEA in industrial and R&D applications, with examples of applications to High Energy Physics experiments. Fibre Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) are optical fibre strain and temperature sensors. An FBG sensor is embedded in the body of an optical fibre, and does not modify neither its dimensions, nor it mechanical features. An FBG is in a short segment about 5mm long: it can be used for 'punctual' measurement; an array of FBGs along one optical fibre can be used for distributed sensing. FBGs are intrinsic optical fibre sensor: to be operated they only require light propagating along the optical fibre (no electrical power must be available at the sensor position); the transmission of their signal occurs along the optical fibre in which they are embedded. FBGs offer any advantage with respect to electrical/electronic sensors: intrinsic long term stability in both quasi-static and dynamic regime; immunity to e.m. noise; reduced wiring for distributed sensing network cabling; hardness to hostile environment.