Qinetiq Limited

The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government

The Secretary of State for Defense in Her Britannic Majesty's Government

James G Burnett

Alan H Greenaway

Roy McBride

Peter A Lloyd

Philip St John Russell

Julian D Jones

Andrew Robert Harvey

Paul M Blanchard

David G Luke

An optical fibre bend sensor ( ) measures the degree and orientation of bending present in a sensor length ( ) portion of a fibre assembly ( ). Within a multicored fibre ( ), cores ( ) are grouped in non-coplanar pairs. An arrangement of optical elements ( ) define within each core pair ( ) two optical paths ( ) which differ along the sensor length ( ): one core ( ) of a pair ( ) is included in the first path ( ), and the other core ( ) in the second path ( ). A general bending of the sensor region ( ) will lengthen one core ( ) with respect to the other. Interrogation of this length differential by means of interferometry generates interferograms from which the degree of bending in the plane of the core pair is extracted. Bend orientation can be deduced from data extracted from multiple core pairs.

Optical fibre bend sensor

An optical fiber bend sensor ( ) measures the degree and orientation of bending present in a sensor length ( ) portion of a fiber assembly ( ). Within a multicored fiber ( ), cores ( ) are grouped in non-coplanar pairs. An arrangement of optical elements ( ) define within each core pair ( ) two optical paths ( ) which differ along the sensor length ( ): one core ( ) of a pair ( ) is included in the first path ( ), and the other core ( ) in the second path ( ). A general bending of the sensor region ( ) will lengthen one core ( ) with respect to the other. Interrogation of this length differential by means of interferometry generates interferograms from which the degree of bending in the plane of the core pair is extracted. Bend orientation can be deduced from data extracted from multiple core pairs.

Optical fiber bend sensor

Sensor system

Sensor system for measurement of temperature or strain

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Malvern, United Kingdom

James G Burnett