High temperature geothermal distributed high-fidelity measurements in multiphase systems
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15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
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Results for “Fiber-optic sensor”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Efficient, Narrow-Pass-Band Optical Filters
Optical filters with both narrow pass bands and high efficiencies fabricated to design specifications. Offer tremendous improvements in performance for number of optical (including infrared) systems. In fiber-optic and free-space communication systems, precise frequency discrimination afforded by narrow pass bands of filters provide higher channel capacities. In active and passive remote sensors like lidar and gas-filter-correlation radiometers, increased efficiencies afforded by filters enhance detection of small signals against large background noise. In addition, sizes, weights, and power requirements of many optical and infrared systems reduced by taking advantage of gains in signal-to-noise ratios delivered by filters.
Sandford, Stephen P.↗
AC Magnetometry Using Nano-ferrofluid Cladded Multimode Interferometric Fiber Optic Sensors for Power Grid Monitoring Applications
The AC magnetic field response of the superparamagnetic nano-ferrofluid is an interplay between the Neel and Brownian relaxation processes and is generally quantified via the susceptibility measurements at high frequencies. The high frequency limit is dictated by these relaxation times which need to be shorter than the time scale of the time varying magnetic field for the nano-ferrofluid to be considered in an equilibrium state at each time instant. Even though the high frequency response of ferrofluid has been extensively investigated for frequencies up to GHz range by non-optical methods, harnessing dynamic response by optical means for AC magnetic field sensing in fiber-optic-based sensors-field remains unexplored. Instead, the incorporation of nano-ferrofluid as sensing materials has been only limited to DC magnetic field sensing, often citing their long response time as a limiting factor to AC field sensing. This work reports the finding of high frequency (up to 15 kHz) AC magnetic field sensing capability of nanomagnetic fluid as the cladding material of a fiber-optic multimode interferometry (MMI) structure optimized for the fourth self-imaging spectral response. The key parameter enabling high frequency response is the short response time (<1 ms) achieved by optimizing both the sensing structure and nano-ferrofluid solution. Focus has been imparted on 60 Hz line-frequency profiles of various current/magnetic fields to test the efficacy of these sensors in metering and monitoring current and current-induced magnetic fields in the electrical power grid systems. The magnetic field sensitivity of 240 mV/Gauss per dBm of transmitted power was achieved for 60 Hz field applied via Helmholtz coil, whereas the 60 Hz AC current sensitivity of 2.83 mV/A was measured due to magnetic field induced by current in a straight conducting wire.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Time domain referencing in intensity modulation fiber optic sensing systems
Intensity modulation sensors are classified by the way in which the reference and signal channels are separated: in space, wavelength, or time domains. To implement the time-domain referencing, different types of fiber-optic loops have been used. A pulse of short duration sent into the loop results in a series of pulses of different amplitudes. The information about the measured parameter is retrieved from the relative amplitudes of pulses in the same train.
Adamovsky, Grigory↗
Health Monitoring of Composite Material Structures using a Vibrometry Technique
Large composite material structures such as aircraft and Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVS) operate in severe environments comprised of vehicle dynamic loads, aerodynamic loads, engine vibration, foreign object impact, lightning strikes, corrosion, and moisture absorption. These structures are susceptible to damage such as delamination, fiber breaking/pullout, matrix cracking, and hygrothermal strain. To ensure human safety and load-bearing integrity, these structures must be inspected to detect and locate often invisible damage and faults before becoming catastrophic. Moreover, nearly all future structures will need some type of in-service inspection technique to increase their useful life and reduce maintenance and overall costs. Possible techniques for monitoring the health and indicating damage on composite structures include: c-scan, thermography, acoustic emissions using piezoceramic actuators or fiber-optic wires with gratings, laser ultrasound, shearography, holography, x-ray, and others. These techniques have limitations in detecting damage that is beneath the surface of the structure, far away from a sensor location, or during operation of the vehicle. The objective of this project is to develop a more global method for damage detection that is based on structural dynamics principles, and can inspect for damage when the structure is subjected to vibratory loads to expose faults that may not be evident by static inspection. A Transmittance Function Monitoring (TFM) method is being developed in this project for ground-based inspection and operational health monitoring of large composite structures as a RLV. A comparison of the features of existing health monitoring approaches and the proposed TFM method is given.
Schulz, Mark J.↗
Fiber optics for controls
The challenge of those involved in control-system hardware development is to accommodate an ever-increasing complexity in aircraft control, while limiting the size and weight of the components and improving system reliability. A technology that displays promise towards this end is the area of fiber optics for controls. The primary advantages of employing optical fibers, passive optical sensors, and optically controlled actuators are weight and volume reduction, immunity from electromagnetic effects, superior bandwidth capabilities, and freedom from short circuits and sparking contacts. Since 1975, NASA Lewis has performed in-house, contract, and grant research in fiber optic sensors, high-temperature electro-optic switches, and fly-by-light control-system architecture. Passive optical sensor development is an essential yet challenging area of work and has therefore received much attention during this period. A major effort to develop fly-by-light control-system technology, known as the Fiber-Optic Control System Integration (FOCSI) program, was initiated in 1985 as a cooperative effort between NASA and DOD. Phase 1 of FOCSI, completed in 1986, was aimed at the design of a fiber-optic integrated propulsion/flight control system. Phase 2, yet to be initiated, will provide subcomponent and system development, and a system engine test. In addition to a summary of the benefits of fiber optics, the FOCSI program, sensor advances, and future directions in the NASA Lewis program will be discussed.
Seng, Gary T.↗
Optical Sensor Of High Gas Temperatures
Contact pyrometer resists effects of heat, vibration, and moisture. New sensor consists of shielded sapphire rod with sputtered layer of precious metal on end. Metal layer acts as blackbody. Emits radiation having known dependence of spectral distribution with temperature of metal and temperature of hot gas flowing over metal. Fiber-optic cable carries radiation from sapphire rod to remote photodetector.
Hill, Arthur J.↗
Direct strike lightning measurement system
A research data system developed for in-flight measurement of direct and nearby lightning-strike characteristics is described. The measurement system consists of a wide-band analog recorder which records the continuous lightning scenario and fast sample-rate digital transient recorders with augmented memory capacity for increased time resolution of specific times of interest. Electromagnetic sensors with bandwidths exceeding 100 MHz are used which respond to rates of change of the quantities being measured. Data system immunity from electromagnetic interference is accomplished by the use of a dynamotor for power isolation, shielded system enclosure and fiber-optic data links.
Thomas, M. E.↗
Fiber-Optic Photoelastic Device Senses Pressure Of Hot Gas
Fiber-optic/photoelastic device measures gas pressures up to 600 psi at operating temperatures as high as 1,100 degrees C. Pressure on fused-silica sensing element gives rise to birefringence via photoelastic effect. Polarization of light changed by birefringence; change in polarization measured and used to infer pressure causing it. Device prototype of gas-pressure sensor for aircraft engine. Mounted in engine at or near desired measurement point, where it responds to both time-varying and steady components of pressure.
Redner, Alex S.↗
A Synthetic Pathway for Producing Carbon Dots for Detecting Iron Ions Using a Fiber Optic Spectrometer
Iron detection is of growing importance in the critical minerals sector, where unwanted iron ions are typically removed during the processing of target critical metals. The ideal sensor should utilize inexpensive, scalable materials along with a low-cost, robust, and easy-to-use analysis platform. Here, we demonstrate a simple acid–base synthesis of luminescent iron-responsive carbon dots by reacting ethanolamine, phosphoric acid, and m-phenylenediamine. The carbon dots exhibit selective, iron-specific emission quenching, with the ability to detect part-per-billion levels of iron ions even in 0.1 M HCl. After benchmarking the purified materials using a commercial spectrometer, a “low-cost” process is demonstrated in which carbon dots with minimal purification are coupled with a portable fiber-optic spectrometer for analyzing iron content. Carbon dot-coated paper strips are also evaluated as another convenient platform for iron analysis. Taken together, the sensing material and platforms demonstrated here are well-suited for detecting trace quantities of iron in environmentally relevant conditions, with potential applications in tracking iron removal processes during critical mineral production as one exciting area of interest.
acid mine draining↗
The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS): An Airborne Laser Altimeter for Mapping Vegetation and Topography
The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) is an airborne laser altimeter designed to quickly and extensively map surface topography as well as the relative heights of other reflecting surfaces within the laser footprint. Since 1997, this instrument has primarily been used as the airborne simulator for the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) mission, a spaceborne mission designed to measure tree height, vertical structure and ground topography (including sub-canopy topography). LVIS is capable of operating from 500 m to 10 km above ground level with footprint sizes from 1 to 60 m. Laser footprints can be randomly spaced within the 7 degree telescope field-of-view, constrained only by the operating frequency of the ND:YAG Q-switched laser (500 Hz). A significant innovation of the LVIS altimeter is that all ranging, waveform recording, and range gating are performed using a single digitizer, clock base, and detector. A portion of the outgoing laser pulse is fiber-optically fed into the detector used to collect the return signal and this entire time history of the outgoing and return pulses is digitized at 500 Msamp/sec. The ground return is then located using software digital signal processing, even in the presence of visibly opaque clouds. The surface height distribution of all reflecting surfaces within the laser footprint can be determined, for example, tree height and ground elevation. To date, the LVIS system has been used to monitor topographic change at Long Valley caldera, CA, as part of NASA's Topography and Surface Change program, and to map tree structure and sub-canopy topography at the La Selva Biological Research Station in Costa Rica, as part of the pre-launch calibration activities for the VCL mission. We present results that show the laser altimeter consistently and accurately maps surface topography, including sub-canopy topography, and vegetation height and structure. These results confirm the measurement concept of VCL and highlight the benefits of airborne prototypes of spaceborne instruments.
Bryan, J.↗
Fiber-optic bolometer with low detection limit fabricated using thermal release tape and precise laser heating
Fiber-optic bolometers (FOBs) based on a fiber-tipped silicon Fabry–Perot (FP) interferometric temperature sensor and a gold disk absorber have been shown to be an attractive alternative to conventional resistive bolometers for plasma radiation measurement in fusion devices. Either a high-finesse FP or a low-finesse FP can be used, each with trade-offs between noise performance and fabrication complexity. In this paper, we present an FOB design that overcomes these limitations by combining a low-finesse long silicon FP cavity with a large gold disk absorber to achieve enhanced sensitivity and noise performance without increasing the fabrication complexity and the time constant. We also demonstrated a fabrication method for the sensor head facilitated by thermal release tape and precise laser heating. Our FOB demonstrates a temperature resolution of 0.08 mK, a cooling time constant of 230 ms, and a noise equivalent power density of 0.015 W m −2 . This represents an eightfold improvement over previous high-finesse FOBs and 26-fold improvement over previous low-finesse FOBs with similar demodulation bandwidths and similar cooling time constants.
Fabry–Perot interferometer↗
Loss-Compensated Optical Sensor Systems
Variations in fiber losses little effect on outputs. Fiber-optic sensing system conceptually related to electrical bridge circuit scarcely affected by variations in losses of optical fibers and connectors. Versions of system investigated for use as linear- and angular-position sensors for advanced aircraft controls. Position accuracies of 8 to 10 bits eventually achieved.
Beheim, Glenn↗
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) fiber optic monitoring of composites during cure in an autoclave
Real-time in situ monitoring of the chemical states of epoxy resins was investigated during cure in an autoclave using infrared evanescent spectroscopy. Fiber evanescent sensors were developed which may be sandwiched between the plies of the prepreg sample. A short length of sapphire fiber was used as the sensor cell portion of the fiber probe. Heavy metal fluoride glass optical fiber cables were designed for connecting the FTIR spectrometer to the sensor fiber within the autoclave. The sapphire fibers have outstanding mechanical thermal properties which should permit their use as an embedded link in all thermoset composites. The system is capable of operation at a temperature of 250 C for periods up to 8 hours without major changes to the fiber transmission. A discussion of the selection of suitable sensor fibers, the construction of a fiber-optic interface, and the interpretation of in situ infrared spectra of the curing process is presented.
Druy, Mark A.↗
Fiber-optic three axis magnetometer prototype development
The goal of this research program was to develop a high sensitivity, fiber optic, interferometric, three-axis magnetometer for interplanetary spacecraft applications. Dynamics Technology, Inc. (DTI) has successfully integrated a low noise, high bandwidth interferometer with high sensitivity metallic glass transducers. Also, DTI has developed sophisticated signal processing electronics and complete data acquisition, filtering, and display software. The sensor was packaged in a compact, low power and weight unit which facilitates deployment. The magnetic field sensor had subgamma sensitivity and a dynamic range of 10(exp 5) gamma in a 10 Hz bandwidth. Furthermore, the vector instrument exhibited the lowest noise level when only one axis was in operation. A system noise level of 1 gamma rms was observed in a 1 Hz bandwidth. However, with the other two channels operating, the noise level increased by about one order of magnitude. Higher system noise was attributed to cross-channel interference among the dither fields.
Wang, Thomas D.↗
Flight testing of a fiber optic temperature sensor
A fiber optic temperature sensor (FOTS) system consisting of an optical probe, a flexible fiber optic cable, and an electro-optic signal processor was fabricated to measure the gas temperature in a turbine engine. The optical probe contained an emissive source embedded in a sapphire lightguide coupled to a fiber-optic jumper cable and was retrofitted into an existing thermocouple probe housing. The flexible fiber optic cable was constructed with 200 micron core, polyimide-coated fiber and was ruggedized for an aircraft environment. The electro-optic signal processing unit was used to ratio the intensities of two wavelength intervals and provided an analog output value of the indicated temperature. Subsequently, this optical sensor system was installed on a NASA Dryden F-15 Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control (HIDEC) Aircraft Engine and several flight tests were conducted. Over the course of flight testing, the FOTS system's response was proportional to the average of the existing thermocouples sensing the changes in turbine engine thermal conditions.
Finney, M. J.↗
Fiber-optic thermometer using Fourier transform spectroscopy
An integrated-optic Mach-Zender interferometer is used as a Fourier transform spectrometer to analyze the input and output spectra of a temperature-sensing thin-film etalon. This configuration provides a high degree of immunity to the effects of changes in the source spectrum, and it readily permits the interrogation of a number of different sensors using a single spectrometer. In addition, this system has a potentially low cost because it uses optical communications hardware that may in the future be manufactured in large quantities.
Beheim, Glenn↗
Distributed, Multifunctional Photonic-IC-based Fiber-Optic Sensing System for RF Accelerator Systems
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43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗