We investigate the performances accessible in terms of strain and temperature discrimination using Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis combined with the LEAF fiber from Corning, AllWave fiber (AW) from Lucent and TrueWave (TW) fiber from OFS when exposed to γ rays and X-rays up to 1 MGy(SiO2). All these fibers present a multipeak Brillouin Gain Spectrum (BGS) with unique dependencies of each of its peaks over temperature (T) and strain (ε). The evolution of their T and ε discrimination capability is investigated to evaluate how radiation affects the sensing performances. High dose irradiation changes the sensor performances through two main effects. First, the Radiation Induced Attenuation (RIA) limits the BGS amplitude, the sensing range and discrimination capability techniques relying on BGS amplitude. Second, radiations modify the Brillouin scattering properties by slightly changing the refractive indices and the acoustic velocities of the silica-based leading to small changes in T and ε dependencies and also to a limited Radiation Induced Brillouin Frequency Shift (RI-BFS) that causes a direct measurement error. Results exhibit an overall decrease of T and ε uncertainties through discrimination process after 1 MGy reaching 0.9°C and 29 με for 0.1 MHz frequency uncertainty for sensors based on the LEAF fiber.
Radiation impact on the strain transfer for a bonded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) has been investigated. The main goal of this preliminary study is to evaluate which adhesive and which fiber are the most appropriate to design a very sensitive strain sensor able to operate in nuclear environment. We performed static and dynamic experiments on different kinds of adhesives and different optical fibers, before and after a 1 MGy(SiO2) X-ray irradiation. The results reveal that the FBG strain sensors can be as much sensitive as classic strain-gauges and that the radiation effects on adhesives can have a positive impact on the strain transfer efficiency.
Fiber Bragg gratings can be used to monitor temperature or strain in harsh environments. We investigate the effect of Xrays on type III gratings – also called void gratings –which are known for their capacity to withstand high temperatures. The tested gratings are inscribed in a SMF28 germanosilicate optical fiber using the point-by-point method and a frequency-doubled Yb femtosecond laser emitting at 515 nm. The tested FBGs are separated in two groups depending on their reflectivity levels (Low/High). Half of each group is pre-annealed at a temperature of 750°C during 30 min. We have irradiated all the gratings up to 100 kGy(SiO2) at a dose-rate of 10 Gy/s at two different irradiation temperatures: 25°C and 150°C. For all the irradiations, the grating radiation response is identical independently of the chosen writing and preannealing conditions. When the irradiation is performed at 25°C, a Bragg wavelength shift of 10 pm is observed for all the gratings, which represents an error of less than 1°C at the total dose of 100 kGy while at 150°C the Bragg peak shift only of less than 4 pm corresponding to an error of 0.3°C.
Combined radiation and temperature effects on the performances of three different Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) have been evaluated for free-space optical communications. Each EDFA has been tested during and after an exposure to 40 keV X-rays up to a cumulated dose of 3 kGy (SiO2) (300 krad) and at a dose rate of ~0.27 Gy (SiO2)/s. Tests have been done at different temperatures of irradiation ranging from -40°C to 120°C showing that this parameter does not significantly affect the EDFA radiation response, comforting the pertinence of room temperature tests for system vulnerability evaluation.
The detection and quantification of the presence of certain chemical species is of central importance regarding permanent structural health monitoring of key industrial fields and civil infrastructures such as oil extraction boreholes or radioactive waste repositories, where H2 is released. With this work we propose and test a competitive technique able to measure the concentration of hydrogen and deuterium thanks to their diffusion into the silica glass of a standard optical fiber, already employed for the distributed monitoring of large infrastructures. The proposed technique, based on Chirped-Pulse Phasesensitive Reflectometry (CP-φOTDR), could represent a novel solution for this problem, thanks to its ability to provide dynamical measurements of refractive index change, with great linearity and sensitivities of 10-8 refractive index units, featuring spatial resolutions of a few meters and kilometric sensing ranges.
We investigated the Bragg Wavelength Shift (BWS) induced by X-rays in a large set of conventional FBGs up to 100kGy dose. Obtained results give some insights on the influence of irradiation parameters such as dose, dose rate as well as the impact of some writing process parameters such as thermal treatment or acrylate recoating on the FBG radiation tolerance.
Temperature response of radiation-tolerant OFDR-based sensors is here investigated, with particular attention on the impact of coating on OFS. By performing consecutive thermal treatments we developed a controlled system to evaluate the performances of our distributed temperature sensor and to estimate the radiation impact. We show an important evolution of the temperature coefficient measurements with thermal treatments for non-irradiated fiber and that the amplitude of this change decreases increasing radiation dose. As final results, we demonstrate that sensor performances are improved if we performed a pre-thermal treatment on the fiber-based system permitting to monitor temperature with an error of 0.05°C.
HOBAN (Development of Hard Optical Fiber BrAgg GratiNgs Sensors) is an European H2020 project granted by Kic InnoEnergy and aiming the development of fiber-based temperature and strain monitoring systems that can withstand harsh nuclear environment (350°C temperature and MGy dose levels). The objective will be achieved by employing ‘ad hoc’ fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors and their associated instrumentation system which will bring to the market new tools for optimizing the running and the services in current and future nuclear power plants. We’ll present the challenges associated with this project and recent advances at the OFS conference.
The difficulties encountered in the implementation of a temperature or strain sensor based on Fiber Bragg Grating in a harsh radiative environment are introduced. We present the choices made to select both a radiation-resistant fiber in terms of transmission and also the grating inscription conditions necessary to write radiation tolerant FBGs in such fibers with a femto-second laser. The response of different classes of gratings was also studied under radiation at high doses (<1MGy). The comparison between F- and Ge-doped fibers was highlighted.
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