The mechanical reliability of sensing glass fiber is one of the important problems in the practical use of fiber-optic sensors. To ensure long-term reliability on a mass-production level, a method of proof-testing is applied to a sensing glass fiber that will be subjected to mechanical deformation in its service situation. We propose to employ a higher strain level (screening level) in the proof-testing with a fiber-recoating technique that can suppress excessive damage during the testing. We consider a standard lifetime of 15 years of automotive applications and ensure a practical level of failure probability by a model calculation by using the strength data of a prototype fiber with the method of fracture-mechanics theory.

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Abnormal combustion of a gasoline engine is often accompanied by a sharp metallic noise called knocking. A recently proposed method of in-cylinder pressure measurement is applied to detect the knocking, where the bending power loss of a single-mode fiber with specific refractive-index composition is utilized. The high-frequency response of a prototype sensor is obtained with a small structure to utilize the bending mechanism that is installed into an engine head gasket. Knocking signals are detected in a wide range of trace- to heavy-knock conditions.

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