a polymer optical fiber fuel level sensor application to paramotoring and powered paragliding聚合物光纤燃料水平传感器应用paramotoring和动力飞行伞.pdfVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 6186-6197; doi:10.3390/s120506186 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article A Polymer Optical Fiber Fuel Level Sensor: Application to Paramotoring and Powered Paragliding David Sánchez Montero *, Pedro Contreras Lallana and Carmen Vázquez Electronics Technology Department, Carlos III de Madrid University, Avda. de la Universidad, 30, Leganés 28911, Madrid, Spain; E-Mails: pcontrer@ing.uc3m.es (P.C.L.); cvazquez@ing.uc3m.es (C.V.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: dsmontero@ing.uc3m.es; Tel.: +34-916-248-865; Fax: +34-916-249-430. Received: 21 March 2012; in revised form: 26 April 2012 / Accepted: 7 May 2012 / Published: 10 May 2012 Abstract: A low-cost intensity-based polymer optical fiber (POF) sensor for fuel level measurements in paramotoring and powered paragliding is presented, exploiting the advantages of the optical fiber sensing technology. Experimental results demonstrate that the best option can be performed by stripping the fiber at the desired discrete points to measure the fuel level as well as with a gauge-shape fiber bending. The prototype has a good linearity, better than 4% full scale (F.S.), and sensitivity around 0.5 V per bend are obtained. Hysteresis due to residual fluid at the sensing points is found to be less than 9% F.S. Keywords: fiber-optic sensor; intensity-based optical sensor; polymer optical fiber (POF) 1. Introd