Temperature-difference Flow Sensor Using Multiple Fiber Bragg Gratings

Multiple fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have been proposed and demonstrated for gas-flow measurements in a flow channel, using the temperature-difference method. This sensor consists of two FBG temperature sensors and two coil heaters. Coil heaters are used to heat the FBGs. The flow rate of the gas can be obtained by monitoring the difference in the Bragg-wavelength shifts of the two FBGs, which has features that exclude the effect of temperature fluctuations. In this study, experiments are conducted to measure the wavelength shift based on the flow rate, and to evaluate the gas-flow rate in a gas tube. Experimental results show that the sensor has a linear characteristic over a flow-rate range from 0 to 25 ℓ/min. The measured sensitivity of the sensor is 3.2 pm/(ℓ/min) at a coil current of 120 mA.