HIGH-PERFORMANCE FIBER OPTIC ACCELEROMETERS

The authors report the design and performance of fully packaged, field ruggedised, high performance fibre optic (FO) accelerometers. Appropr iate design considerations have resulted in FO accelerometers with man y desirable engineering features which include: (i) high sensitivity ( >20 dB re rad/g), (ii) low noise (<1 micro-g root Hz at 1 kHz) (iii) b road frequency response (100 Hz to 14 kHz), (iv) low sensitivity io ex traneous measurands (e.g. static pressure sensitivity <-200 dB re rad/ mu Pa), (v) small size (<35 gms total, and (vi) low cross-axis sensiti vity (<-35dB). Single device or arrays of such devices can be incorpor ated in many structural and vibration sensing applications at low cost .