The measurement of strain of a prototype pulley system using a Brillouin optical time domain analysis

Abstract

In the chain and rope hoist systems of large cranes, instant and monitoring of the strain caused by different loads is of great importance. Strain is a size that cannot be measured directly and whose effect can be measured. Strain can be measured point by point with the help of electronic sensors. However, increasing the number of measuring points causes complexity in electronic systems. Thanks to distributed fiber sensors, this problem has been overcome and standard SMF has been used as tens of thousands of measuring points. In this study, a model of the pulley system used in large cranes is created and the strain occurring at a certain point of a SMF was experimentally measured using the BOTDA technique. SNR was improved by using the wavelet noise reduction technique in the processing of the received signals. In order to monitor the measured strain, a user-friendly interface was designed.