Fiber Bragg Grating Array as a Quasi Distributed Temperature Sensor for Furnace Boiler Applications

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental work on distributed temperature sensing making use of Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array sensor for possible applications in the monitoring of temperature profile in high temperature boilers. A special sensor has been designed for this purpose which consists of four FBGs (of wavelengths λB1 =1547.28nm, λB2 =1555.72nm, λB3 =1550.84nm, λB4 =1545.92nm) written in hydrogen loaded fiber in line with a spacing of 15cm between them. All the FBGs are encapsulated inside a stainless steel tube for avoiding micro cracks using rigid probe technique. The spatial distribution of temperature profile inside a prototype boiler has been measured experimentally both in horizontal and vertical directions employing the above sensor and the results are presented.