FIBER SENSORS FOR EXPLOSIVE ENVIRONMENTS

EXTREMELY HARSH ENVIRONMENTS EXIST IN UNDERWATER EXPLOSIVES RESEARCH AND TESTING. IN ORDER TO MONITOR KEY PHYSICAL PARAMETERS IN THESE ENVIRONMENTS, IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO DEVELOP NEW CONCEPTS IN SENSOR DESIGN TO MEASURE SUCH THINGS AS TEMPERATURE AND ACOUSTIC PRESSURE. PRESENT DAY SENSORS WILL NOT OPERATE RELIABLY IN THIS ENVIRONMENT. FIBER OPTIC SENSORS OFFER A POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. HOWEVER, PRESENT FIBERS OF GLASS OR SILICA ARE NOT ABLE TO WITHSTAND THE TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES THAT EXIST. LASER-GENICS CORPORATION IS PROPOSING TO INVESTIGATE SINGL CRYSTAL FIBERS OF SAPPHIRE AND YAG FOR THIS APPLICATION. THESE MATERIALS CAN WITHSTAND THE HARSH ENVIRONMENT THAT WILL EXIST IN THIS RESEARCH. WE ARE PROPOSING A UNIQUE APPROACH THAT WOULD ALLOW THE MEASURMENT OF BOTH TEMPERATURE AND ACOUSTIC PRESSURE WITH A SINGLE FIBER OPTIC. THIS CONCEPT WILL BE TESTED DURING THE PHASE I EFFORT. FOR THE PHASE II EFFORT WE WILL DETERMINE SENSOR AND DATA TRANSMISSION LINK DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS USABLE IN EXPLOSIVE EXPERIMENTS.