Monitoring a Heatsink Temperature Field Using Raman-Based Distributed Temperature Sensor in a Vacuum and -173 °C...

A heatsink is a large experimental device which is used to simulate the outer space environment. In this paper, a Raman-based distributed temperature sensor was used for real-time and continuous heatsink temperature monitoring, and a special Raman-based distributed temperature sensing method and system have been proposed. This method takes advantage of three calibration parameters ( Δ α , γ , C ) to calculate the temperature. These three parameters are related to the attenuation of the optical fiber, the Raman translation, and the difference of optoelectronic conversion, respectively. Optical time domain reflectometry was used to calculate the location. A series of heatsink temperature measurement experiments were performed in a vacuum and -173 °C environment. When the temperature dropped to -100 °C, the parameter Δ α was found to vary. A method was proposed to recalculate Δ α and modify the traditional Raman fiber temperature equation. The results of the experiments confirmed the validity of this modified Raman fiber temperature equation. Based on this modified equation, the temperature field in the heatsink was calculated. The Raman-based distributed temperature sensor has potential applications in temperature measurement and judging the occurrence of faults in space exploration.