FLEXURAL BEAM-BASED FIBER BRAGG GRATING ACCELEROMETERS

A flexural beam is utilized as the primary transduction mechanism for demonstrating a series of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) accelerometers. Th e fully packaged FBG accelerometers reported in this work have many de sirable features including good acceleration sensitivity (212.5 mu eps ilon/g), high resonant frequencies (on the order of 1 kHz), very low c ross-axis sensitivity (< 1% of the primary axial responsivity), and lo w noise (similar to 1 mg/root Hz near 1 Hz). Arrays of such devices ca n be utilized in a variety of applications, including structural monit oring. Closed-form analytical formulas describing the resonant frequen cy and responsivity of the FBG accelerometer are provided which may be utilized to tailor the sensor performance to specific applications.