All-Optical Fiber Power-Frequency Electric Field Sensor Using a Twin-Fbg Based Fiber-Optic Accelerometer with Charged Polyimide

Abstract

In this report, we demonstrate a novel fiber-optic power frequency electric-field sensor. In the sensor structure, a charged polyimide-jacketed fiber cantilever is adopted to form an electric-field sensitive element. The lightweight fiber cantilever can vibrate in power frequency under the actions of the induced alternative electric field force. The vibrating amplitude of fiber cantilever is proportional to the strength of the electric field to be measured, which is optically detected by using a twin-FBG based fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer which is embedded in the fiber beam. The concept and operation principles of this sensor technology including the detailed theoretical analyses will be presented. A sensor prototype is made and some preliminary experimental results for proving sensor concepts as well as for evaluating sensor's basic performances including the sensitivity, dynamic response and directionality will be presented. Experimental results for investigating the actual field distribution surrounding energized structures using this sensor prototype also are demonstrated. These experimental results further verify the feasibility of the proposed sensor technology applying in the power industry for power-frequency electric field sensing.