Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors - Advancements and Industrial Applications

Abstract

Over the last few years, optical fiber sensors have seen increased acceptance and widespread use for a variety of applications ranging from structural sensing and health monitoring of composites and structures in civil and aeronautic areas; to pressure and temperature sensors for oil and gas reservoir monitoring to name just a few. Among them Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based sensors have become widely known and popular within and out the photonics community and seen a rise in their utilization and commercial growth. Given the capability of FBGs to measure a multitude of parameters such as strain, temperature, pressure, chemical and bio-logical agents and many others coupled with their flexibility of design to be used as single point or multi-point sensing arrays and their relative low cost, make them ideal devices to be adopted for a multitude of different sensing applications and implemented in different fields and industries. This work first focuses on some recent experiences in the use of FBGs for opto-acoustic sensors and railway monitoring and then reviews the advances in the area of FBGs evanescent wave sensors as valuable technological platforms for chemical and biological applications.