Abstract

A fibre optic curvature sensor is proposed with the enhanced backscattering sensitive to the deflection of thin structures. A short piece of single mode fibre attached on 1mm thickness titanium substrate is polished with rough sand paper. The rough surface and micro-cracks near fibre core dramatically enhance the backscatter in the fibre. The sensor is experimentally researched with self-pulse reference intensity demodulation method. The minimum detectable curvature is as small as 3.0 × 10⁻⁴/m, which means the strain resolution is 0.1με . The backscatter optical fibre curvature senor can be much more compact and convenient to use in smart structure.

© 2020 The Author(s)