Ultra-small fiber Bragg grating accelerometer

Abstract

Reducing the size of an accelerometer overcomes the tradeoff between its sensitivity and resonant frequency, and the theoretical relationships are analyzed. A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) accelerometer with the shortest vibration arm, 7 mm, among FBG accelerometers using the optical fiber to hold its inertial object is demonstrated here. The inertial object was 4.41 g. The experimental crest-to-trough sensitivity and resonant frequency, 244 pm/g and 90 Hz, disagree with the theoretical values, 633 pm/g and 67 Hz, perhaps due to the friction between the inertial object and shell. In order to find the theoretical values, a method to find the pre-stretch of the FBG is also presented here, based on the stretch of the FBG at equilibrium and the mass of the inertial object. The FFT program, experimental data and theoretical calculations are presented in detail in the Supplementary Material.