A fiber-optic water flow sensor based on laser-heated silicon Fabry-Pérot cavity

Guigen Liu; Qiwen Sheng; Geraldo Resende Lisboa Piassetta; Weilin Hou; Ming Han

doi:10.1117/12.2230556

12 May 2016 A fiber-optic water flow sensor based on laser-heated silicon Fabry-Pérot cavity

Guigen Liu, Qiwen Sheng, Geraldo Resende Lisboa Piassetta , Weilin Hou, Ming Han

Proceedings Volume 9852, Fiber Optic Sensors and Applications XIII; 98521B (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2230556
Event: SPIE Commercial + Scientific Sensing and Imaging, 2016, Baltimore, MD, United States

Abstract

A hot-wire fiber-optic water flow sensor based on laser-heated silicon Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI) has been proposed and demonstrated in this paper. The operation of the sensor is based on the convective heat loss to water from a heated silicon FPI attached to the cleaved enface of a piece of single-mode fiber. The flow-induced change in the temperature is demodulated by the spectral shifts of the reflection fringes. An analytical model based on the FPI theory and heat transfer analysis has been developed for performance analysis. Numerical simulations based on finite element analysis have been conducted. The analytical and numerical results agree with each other in predicting the behavior of the sensor. Experiments have also been carried to demonstrate the sensing principle and verify the theoretical analysis. Investigations suggest that the sensitivity at low flow rates are much larger than that at high flow rates and the sensitivity can be easily improved by increasing the heating laser power. Experimental results show that an average sensitivity of 52.4 nm/(m/s) for the flow speed range of 1.5 mm/s to 12 mm/s was obtained with a heating power of ~12 mW, suggesting a resolution of ~1 μm/s assuming a wavelength resolution of 0.05 pm.

Citation Download Citation

Guigen Liu, Qiwen Sheng, Geraldo Resende Lisboa Piassetta , Weilin Hou, and Ming Han "A fiber-optic water flow sensor based on laser-heated silicon Fabry-Pérot cavity", Proc. SPIE 9852, Fiber Optic Sensors and Applications XIII, 98521B (12 May 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2230556

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