The Design Of Fiber Optic Sensors For Measuring Hydrodynamic Parameters

We present an approximate analytic model that has been developed for examining hydrodynamic flow near the surface of a fiber optic sensor. An analysis of the conservation of momentum, the continuity equation and the Navier-Stokes equation for compressible flow was used to develop expressions for the velocity and the density as a function of the distance along the flow and above a two dimensional flat surface. When examining the flow near the surface, these expressions can be used to estimate the sensitivity required to perform direct optical measurements and to parameterize the shear force for indirect optical measurements. The use of these results allows for direct modeling of sensors using the optical properties of the flow field. Future work includes analyzing the optical parametric design of fiber optic sensors, modeling sensors to utilize those parameters for optimal measurements involving different mixtures of fluid flow.