Optical fiber sensor for vibration amplitude measurement

An optical fiber vibration sensor capable of measuring vibration amplitudes ranging from 1 mm down to 0.1 mu m with a wide range of frequencies form 0.5 Hz to 100 kHz is described. The proposed method can be used to calibrate accelerometers. In this method the light from a tungsten halogen lamp is made to pass through an optical fiber whose exit end is mounted on the object under test. The emergent light is detected by a lock-in amplifier and then measured by a digital panel meter which can be made to give direct reading of the vibration amplitude. The main advantages of this method are wide dynamic range, wide frequency range, linearity, noise reduction, ruggedness, and light weight. The ultimate detectability can be as much as 0.5 AA/ square root Hz at 1 kHz.<>