Fiber Optic Sensor System for Machinery Vibration Monitoring and Diagnosis

IFOS proposes an approach to developing an optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based real-time instrumentation system for machinery vibration monitoring and diagnosis. IFOS’ key innovation is in the use of an advanced fiber optic sensing system that can make temperature and vibration measurements, with vibration signature identification and statistics tracking techniques for the assessment of the machinery condition and fault diagnosis. The sensing system is modular, uses electrically passive, electromagnetic interference (EMI) immune, multiplexable, fiber optic sensing technology, with many sensors on a single lightweight optical fiber that is unobtrusively attached to the machinery-under-test. This system is capable of measuring low (Hz) and high (MHz) vibration frequencies explored for monitoring and detection of incipient damage. In Phase I the IFOS research team will implement such FBGs as vibration sensors to be surface-mounted on the structure. The diagnosis approach is based on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to correlate temperature and vibration signatures with the machinery health and performance conditions. In Phase II, the proof-of-concept prototype will be refined and tested to validate all requirements.