HIGH BANDWIDTH ACCELEROMETER FOR SHOCK ENVIRONMENTS

THE PHASE I EXPERIMENTAL EFFORT WILL DEMONSTRATED THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A RUGGED HIGH BANDWIDTH FIBER OPTIC BASED ACCELEROMETER FOR USE IN SHOCK ENVIRONMENTS. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL SEEK TO DEVELOP AN ACCELEROMETER WITH WIDE MEASUREMENT BANDWIDTH CAPABILITY AND INCREASED RUGGEDNESS COMPARED TO PRESENTLY AVAILABLE PIEZOELECTRIC AND PIEZO-RESISTIVE ACCELEROMETERS. THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL QUANTIFY THE EFFECT OF GLASS SAMPLE GEOMETRY ON THE PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES OF A FIBER OPTIC ACCELEROMETER. A PROTOTYPE FIBER OPTIC ACCELEROMETER WILL BE DESIGNED, FABRICATED AND EVALUATED AS PART OF THE PHASE I PROGRAM. THE SENSOR OFFERS IMMUNITY TO THE EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE AND ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE, AND A SENSOR OUTPUT THAT IS DIRECTLY COMPATIBLE WITH FIBER OPTIC DATA TRANSMISSION LINES. THE USE OF A SUM-DIFFERENCE OUTPUT DETECTION SCHEME WILL PROVIDE IMMUNITY TO SOURCE LIGHT INTENSITY VARIATIONS, OPTICAL FIBER MICROBENDING LOSSES AND THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF RADIATION DARKENING.