Detection of Impact Induced Stress Waves Using a Novel Optical Fiber Fabry-Perot Sensor

A novel optical fiber Fabry-Perot(F-P) sensor for the detection of impact induced stress wave is reported. The multi-beam interference model of low finesse F-P cavity is established considering the spectrum of incident beam obeys a Gaussian distribution. In addition, by analyzing the action mechanism between the optical fiber F-P sensor and tress waves generated by the impact, the sensing model of the optical fiber F-P sensor is established. Ball-on-ball impacts show that the developed F-P sensor can successfully detect the stress wave signals induced by the impact, and the sensitivity of sensor has the directivity.