Abstract
Experiments were performed to test fiber optic temperature sensors under thermal conditions similar to those that would be experienced in the transient reactor test facility (TREAT) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Specifically, four single-mode optical fiber sensors were dropped into a pre-heated furnace to simulate a step temperature transient, for steps from room temperature to indicated furnace temperatures, ranging from 700 °C to 1100 °C. The four fibers were a standard SMF-28 fiber, a fiber with inscribed type-I fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), and two fibers with inscribed type-II FBGs. The two type-II FBG fibers were different in the initial backscatter signal of the gratings; one fiber had gratings with greater backscatter reflection than the other. The type-I FBG sensor and standard SMF-28 sensor measured temperature for temperature transients with a final temperature of 700 °C. The low reflection type-II FBG sensor measured temperature transients with final temperatures up to 950 °C. The high-reflection type-II FBG sensor successfully measured temperature for short times with final temperatures up to 1050 °C. For long times at 1050 °C, there was a drift in the temperature sensing. We conclude that the high-reflection type-II FBG sensor would perform acceptably for application in the thermal environment of TREAT, or for other step temperature transients from room temperature to final temperatures up to 1000 °C.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 8453890 |
| Pages (from-to) | 8755-8761 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | IEEE Sensors Journal |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 21 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Manuscript received May 16, 2018; revised August 17, 2018; accepted August 17, 2018. Date of publication September 3, 2018; date of current version October 10, 2018. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under the Integrated University Program Nuclear Energy University Program Fellowship and in part by the Integrated Research Project, Advanced Instrumentation for Transient Reactor Testing. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was Dr. Daniele Tosi. (Corresponding author: Kelly M. McCary.) The authors are with the Nuclear Engineering Program, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 USA (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; birri.2@ osu.edu; [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2018.2868429
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy |
Keywords
- Silica optical fiber
- fiber Bragg gratings
- high temperature
- nuclear reactor
- transient