Error analyses for photoelastic multimode optical fiber sensors

A detailed and systematic error analysis for photoelastic optical fiber sensors is presented. The errors introduced by the photoelastic sensing element, the quarterwave-plate, the polarization beam splitter, the optical source and the signal processing system have been evaluated quantitatively. The best arrangement of the optical components in the sensor head is indicated for the elimination of the error induced by the quarter-wave-plate. The effect of the spectral width of the light source on the sensor output is analyzed and the limitation of the spectral width or the differential phase delay introduced by the sensing element is obtained. Some practical issues for photoelastic fiber sensors are also discussed