Title :
Low-Cost Multipoint Liquid-Level Sensor With Plastic Optical Fiber
Author :
Xiao Lin ; Liyong Ren ; Yiping Xu ; Nana Chen ; Haijuan Ju ; Jian Liang ; Zhengquan He ; Enshi Qu ; Baowen Hu ; Yulin Li
Author_Institution :
State Key Lab. of Transient Opt. & Photonics, Xian Inst. of Opt. & Precision Mech., Xian, China
Abstract :
A simple and low-cost discrete liquid-level measurement system is present in this letter. It consists of a group of plastic optical fiber segments, which are aligned coaxially and spaced equally. When the spacing between every two adjacent fiber segments is filled with liquid, the light power will be easier to couple from one segment to the next as compared with the situation that the fibers are exposed in air. Based on this point, we design this intensity-based sensor and investigate its working properties theoretically by using the ray-tracing method. The performance of this sensor is demonstrated in detail where different liquids are utilized as specimens.
Keywords :
fibre optic sensors; level measurement; optical design techniques; optical fibre couplers; ray tracing; intensity-based sensor design; light power; low-cost discrete liquid-level measurement system; low-cost multipoint liquid-level sensor; optical coupling; plastic optical fiber segments; ray-tracing method; Couplings; Head; Indexes; Liquids; Optical fiber sensors; Optical fibers; Optical fiber sensor; liquid level measurement; plastic optical fiber; ray-tracing;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2014.2329037
