Steel wires are widely applied in industrial applications - in most cases as critical components fulfilling high safety requirements in harsh environments (e.g. dockside cranes). In this paper a technique for real-time monitoring of steel ropes applying optical strain sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings is presented. The optical sensors are integrated within the wire strand and replace the core. The strain transmission from the outer wires to the sensors is assured by the mechanical coupling between the optical fiber and the strand. The actual strain load and rope vibrations in the kilohertz range can be determined in real-time.

Date Published: 2 June 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 9157A2 (2 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2059595

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9157:
23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors
José M. López-Higuera; Julian D. C. Jones; Manuel López-Amo; José Luis Santos, Editor(s)