A Novel Low-Power-Consumption All-Fiber-Optic Anemometer with Simple System Design

Area of Science:

• Optoelectronics
• Nanomaterials Science
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Traditional hot-wire anemometers often require complex structures and high power consumption.
• Fiber-optic sensing offers advantages in remote and harsh environment applications.
• Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) possess excellent light-to-heat conversion properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a compact, low-power fiber-optic anemometer.
• To utilize SWCNTs as a light-heat conversion medium for sensing.
• To simplify the sensing head structure of a fiber hot-wire anemometer (HWA).

Main Methods:

• Coating a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) with an SWCNT film.
• Using the SWCNT film to absorb near-infrared light from a broadband light source (BBS), creating a "hot wire" effect.
• Measuring temperature variations induced by wind flow via TFBG wavelength shifts.

Main Results:

• The SWCNT-coated TFBG anemometer demonstrated a wavelength response of 0.100 nm for wind speeds from 0 to 2 m/s with only 9.87 mW BBS input power.
• A sensitivity of -0.0346 nm/(m/s) was achieved at 1 m/s wind speed.
• The system exhibited significantly reduced power consumption and simplified structure compared to traditional methods.

Conclusions:

• The proposed fiber-optic anemometer based on SWCNT-coated TFBG is a simple, low-power, and cost-effective solution for wind speed sensing.
• This technology shows great potential for long-term remote monitoring and on-chip sensing applications.
• The shared light source for heating and sensing simplifies the overall system design.