Modeling, Simulation and Experimental Studies of Refractometric Fiber Optic Sensor

Refractometric fiber optic sensors have a number of applications in industry due to advantages like remote sensing ability, compact size, easy to fit, etc. A refractometric sensor contains a pair of parallel fibers and a gap between the sensor probe and reflector, wherein the liquid whose refractive index is to be measured is filled. This paper describes the importance of mathematical modeling of this sensor. Ray tracing approach is used to model the sensor mathematically. This mathematical model is generalized for any scenario which is useful to avoid tedious trial and error techniques to design the sensor prototype. Mathematical modelling is a useful tool to optimize the gap distance for a detection of refractive index of liquid. The model is developed and analyzed rigorously considering adulteration of diesel by kerosene where refractive index varies from 1.44 to 1.46. Simulation experiments are carried out to optimize the gap distance which is found to be 6.8 mm using both models. Experiments are carried out where sensor probe is fabricated and results are analyzed. It is observed that for suggested gap distance sensor output varies almost linear over the entire range.

Refractometric Fiber Optic Sensor for Detecting Salinity of Water

Salinity is an important property of industrial and natural waters. It is defined as the measure of the mass of dissolved salts in a given mass of solution. High salinity has an impact on people and industries reliant on water. High levels of salt can reduce crop yields, limit the choice of crops that can be grown and, at higher concentrations over long periods, can kill trees and make the land unsuitable for agricultural purposes. Salinity increases the “hardness” of water, which can mean more soap and detergents have to be used or water softeners installed and maintained. This can also cause scaling in pipes and heaters. The experimental determination of the salt content by drying and weighing presents some difficulties due to the loss of some components. The only reliable way to determine the true or absolute salinity of natural water is to make a complete chemical analysis. However, the method is time consuming and cannot yield the precision necessity for accurate work. Thus to determine salinity, one normally used method involves the measurement of a physical property such as conductivity, density or refractive index. The paper reports the refractometric fiber optic sensor for detection of salinity of water. The mathematical model is developed for detection of the refractive index of liquid and simulated in MATLAB. The fiber optic sensor probe is developed to measure the refractive index of the solution containing different amount of salt dissolved in water i.e. different molar concentrations. Experiments are carried out using the developed probe for these solutions. Experimental results are showing good agreement with the simulated results.