Development of Robust Distributed Ceramic Coaxial Cable Sensors for High Temperature Harsh Environment Applications

The interconnected consequences of the national energy strategy compel us to design energy systems to operate at higher temperatures to achieve greater efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The success of various promising clean coal technologies will rely in part on sensors that can perform reliably in the harsh environments involved in these energy systems for process optimization and key component longevity. However, the availability of sensors or measurement systems becomes rather limited in the high temperature regimes. Few sensors that are available usually exhibit either poor long term stability or concerned reliability. In addition, the problem of using a large number of sensors with widespread spatial distribution challenges sensor deployment, interrogation and data acquisition/processing. In this Phase I SBIR project, HABSonic LLC will develop a novel high-temperature tolerant ceramic coaxial cable Fabry-Perot interferometric (CCC-FPI) sensor and a unique joint time-frequency domain demodulation technique for distributed measurement of temperature or strain with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution. The CCC-FPI sensors and the associate instrumentation has the potential to accurately map the temperature or stain in a hot zone and to provide important information for the advanced control and optimized operation of various energy systems. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: There is an established consensus that advanced monitoring systems will be essential to achieving the cost and performance targets in advanced power systems. HABSonic LLC expects this R & amp;D effort to result in low-cost, easy-to-use, durable, distributed sensors for a wide range of energy generation applications. Energy systems that could benefit from such distributed high-temperature sensor technology include coal gasifiers, turbines, advanced coal combustion systems, and other critical or high maintenance equipment.