OPTICAL FIBRE BEND SENSOR

Howard Greenaway, Alan (Inventor), Gordon Burnett, James (Inventor), Robert Harvey, Andrew (Inventor), Michael Blanchard, Paul (Inventor), Arthur Lloyd, Peter (Inventor), Roy McBride (Inventor), St. John Russell, Philip (Inventor)

Research output: Patent

Abstract

An optical fibre bend sensor (10) measures the degree and orientation of bending present in a sensor length (30) portion of a fibre assembly (26). Within a multicored fibre (30, 32, 34), cores (62, 66) are grouped in non-coplanar pairs. An arrangement of optical elements (28, 36, 38) define within each core pair (62, 66) two optical paths (122, 124) which differ along the sensor length (30): one core (62) of a pair (62, 66) is included in the first path (122), and the other core (66) in the second path (124). A general bending of the sensor region (30) will lengthen one core (62, 66) with respect to the other. Interrogation of this length differential by means of interferometry generates interferograms form 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.

Original languageEnglish
Patent numberWO9859219
IPCG01B11/16,G01D5/353
Priority date20/06/97
Publication statusPublished - 30 Dec 1998

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