Home // ALLSENSORS 2021, The Sixth International Conference on Advances in Sensors, Actuators, Metering and Sensing // View article

Optical Flow Sensor Based on Thermal Time Constant Measurement

Authors:
Jernej Hribar
Denis Donlagic

Keywords: optical fiber sensor, thermal time constant, flow measurement

Abstract:
This contribution presents a novel all-dielectric, all-optical microfluidic flow sensor based on thermal time constant measurement. The proposed sensor utilizes a single optical fiber positioned perpendicular to the flow in a glass capillary. A Vanadium-Doped Fiber was utilized, in combination with Fiber Bragg grating to measure the thermal time constant of the fiber. The fiber was heated periodically with a laser source. The temperature change of the fiber was observed, and the system's thermal time constant calculated simultane-ously. The thermal time constant of the system correlates directly with the flow of the fluid. When the fiber was placed in a glass capillary with an inner diameter of 650 µm, flow rate measurement in the range from 0 ml/h to 300 ml/h was achievable. Furthermore, as shown in this contribution, the sensor was not sensitive to losses in the lead-in optical fiber or optical source power fluctuations, which is rarely the case with optical fiber sensors utilizing an optical fiber heater.

Pages: 51 to 56

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2021

Publication date: July 18, 2021

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-836X

ISBN: 978-1-61208-875-4

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from July 18, 2021 to July 22, 2021