FIBER OPTIC PRESSURE SENSOR FOR WIND-TUNNEL APPLICATIONS

A BROAD-RANGE PRESSURE SENSOR CONCEPT IMMUNE TO HARSH ENVI- RONMENTS AND EXTREME TEMPERATURES IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH MEASUREMENTS IN WIND-TUNNEL TESTING. THE PRO- POSED SENSOR--FABRICATED AS INTEGRAL TER- MINUS OF A SINGLE MULTIMODE FIBER OPTIC CABLE -- IS ESSEN- TIALLY ALL GLASS AND HENCE IMMUNE TO HIGH TEMPERATURE A WELL AS ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE. THE RESULTS OF A PHASE I STUDY AS DELINEATED IN THE FINAL REPORT INDICATE THAT THE PRESSURE SENSOR IS INDEED FEASIBLE. CRITICAL THE- ORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE SYSTEM DESIGN--SEN-SOR ELEMENT AND OPTICAL DEMODULATOR - WERE CONSIDERED DURING PHASE I AND DETERMINED TO VERIFY PRO-POSED FABRICATION PROCEDURES FOR A PROTOTYPE MODEL. ALSO THE DESIGN OF THE MICROPROCESSOR INTERFACE WAS GENERATED. ACCURACY ANALYSIS BOTH EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL SHOW GREAAT POTENTIAL FOR THE PRESSURE SENSOR SYSTEM; HOWEVER, EVALUATION NEEDS TO PROCEED FURTHER USING A COMPLETE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM. THUS THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF A PHASE II PROJECT IS TO FABRICATE BRASS-BOARD DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM. THE INDIVIDUAL TASKS RE- QUIRED TO MEET THIS OBJECTIVE COMPOSE THEPHASE II STATEMENT OF WORK AS FOLLOWS: (1) FABRICATE A SENSOR FAMILY FOR A RANGE OF PRESSUR, (2) DEVELOP BATCH-PROCESSED, PLASTIC-OPTICDEMODULATOR FOR CIRCUIT BOARD UTILIZATION, (3) FABRICATE STAND-ALONE PRESSURE SENSOR ELECTRONICS, AND (4) TEST THE COMPLETED SYSTEM IN WIND-TUNNEL ENVIRONMENTS. FOR LACK OF APPROPRIATE SENSORS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN CURATE, BROAD-RANGE, MULTI-PURPOSE PRESSURE SENSOR FAMILY WHICH IS IMMUNE TO ELECTRICAL NOISE AND EXTREME TEPERATURE