Fiber-optic sensors

The basic components of a monitoring system are: a readout unit (interrogator), (passive) fiber-optic (cable) transmission for carrying the information and FBG sensors.
Fiber-optic sensors are manufactured just like standard optical fibers. The only difference is their coating, which is made of a material with high adhesion and a high coefficient of friction, resulting in the elimination of slippage at the sensor mounting point. Such a sensor is able to deform in the same way as the monitored structure. Fiber-optic sensors are immune to electromagnetic interference, there is no electrical power involved, and there is the ability to transmit the optical signal over long distances.
The following sensors are used for monitoring:
– Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG)
– Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI)
– SOFO
– using Brillouin scattering in the optical fiber
Ways of mounting the sensors on a structure:
– spot welding (steel trusses, tanks and columns)

– bolting (external walls, rocks)
– bonding (pipelines, gas tanks)
– embedding in concrete (during the pouring of the structure)
– bonding in boreholes (tunnel walls, slopes, dams).
Fiber-optic sensors have a wide range of applications, as they are used in many industries: from electrical engineering, through industry, all the way to the food industry and medicine. Fiber-optic technology is used mainly in control and measurement equipment, as well as a transmission medium.