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Abstract. Optical fiber sensors bring to measurement systems all the advantages
offered by the optical fiber technology. The potential applications for these
sensors are numerous and can spread from medical diagnosis to pipe line
monitoring passing through geological measurements. This chapter will focus on
the applications in road tunnels and undercroft car parks monitoring. It will detail
the existing optical fiber sensor methods, commercially available or under
development in the field of air quality monitoring, in particular NO2 that is
representative of toxic automotive pollution, flaming fire detection and
combustible gas leak detection (in particular methane and hydrogen).
1 Introduction
and flexibility allow to embed them directly in the structures to monitor without
affecting their mechanical resistance. Last but not least, depending on the
interrogation technique that is set up, optical fibers yield distributed (the parameter
is sensed all along the fiber length) or quasi-distributed (the parameter is sensed at
different points cascaded along the fiber length) measurements that can be
remotely addressed. This particularity is not intrinsically possible to achieve with
any other sensing methods.
In this chapter, we will focus on applications in road tunnels and undercroft car
parks monitoring. These closed and generally wide spaces present issues in terms
of air quality control (CO and NOx), fire detection and combustible gas leak
detection. Those elements are not independent as a combustible gas leak can lead
to a fire. A fire leads to the production of toxic gases such as CO or NOx and some
fire detectors are based on the detection of these tracer gases. Classically, to insure
the safety level in these places, a sufficient number of point sensors/detectors is
installed to cover the entire area. These solutions are generally expensive because
of the costs for the installation of the detectors, the cabling and data transfer.
Optical fibers bring an elegant solution as the fiber itself can ensure all functions:
signal and data transfer, addressing and distributed or quasi-distributed detection
at the same time.
After a review of the most often encountered optical fiber sensing technologies,
this chapter will focus on the main optical fiber sensors developed in the field of
air quality monitoring, in particular NO2, flaming fire detection and combustible
gas leak detection (in particular methane and hydrogen).
where ns and nr stand fo or the refractive indices of the sensitive and referencce
fibers, respectively. Ls an
nd Lr are their length and is the wavelength of light iin
vacuum. In practice, both h ns and Ls change in response to external perturbationns,
such as mechanical strain and temperature. Hence, the information about thesse
stimuli is known from thee measured intensity. For strain sensing, Lr is periodicallly
modulated to minimize the temperature influence and to improve the sensinng
performances.
~10 centimeters over several (tens of) kilometers. Their main application remains
axial strain sensing [7].
(4)
where neff is the effective refractive index of the core mode at the Bragg
wavelength.
A uniform FBG acts as a selective mirror in wavelength around the Bragg
wavelength to yield a pass-band reflected amplitude spectrum, as depicted in
Figure 5 for a 1 cm long FBG. In fact, at each refractive index discontinuity along
the fiber axis, a weak Fresnel reflection is generated. They add in phase at the
Bragg wavelength, yielding an important reflection.
In practice, the effective refractive index of the core and the spatial periodicity
of the grating are both affected by changes in strain and temperature. The order of
magnitude of the temperature sensitivity of the Bragg wavelength is ~10 pm/°C
around 1550 nm. The axial strain sensitivity of the Bragg wavelength is ~1.2
pm/ ε around 1550 nm. In addition to their intrinsic sensitivity to temperature and
strain changes, the association of FBGs with sensitive materials opens the way to
other sensing applications such as gas leak monitoring or chemical species
profiling.
Other types of fiber gratings such as tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs) and
long period fiber gratings (LPFGs) couple light from the fiber to the cladding [12,
13]. TFBGs are short period gratings that present a refractive index modulation
angled by a few degrees with respect to the perpendicular to the optical fiber
8 M. Debliquya et al.
In this section, we will focus on the detection of CO and NO2 which are the most
important polluting gases for undercroft car parks and tunnels. Let us mention that
the TLV (Threshold Limit Value) is equal to 25 ppm (29 mg/m3) for CO and 5
ppm (9 mg/m3) for NO2 (recommended by American Conference of Governmental
& Industrial Hygienists ACGIH). [15]
This system allows acccurate determinations of low NOx concentration levels (iin
the ppb range). As can be understood, this type of analysers is quite complicated,
cumbersome, power con nsuming and expensive. They are usually used foor
environmental monitoring g.
Electrochemical sensors are the largest and oldest types of chemical gas sensors.
Such sensors can be subdivided according to their working principle:
potentiometric [22] or amperometric.
For the usual applications in safety and control, most sensors and detectors are
based on liquid electrolyte cells working on an amperometric principle.
These sensors are based on the measurement of the diffusion limit current
during the oxidation or the reduction of a dissolved gas in an appropriate
electrolyte.
The sensor consists in 3 electrodes in contact with a liquid electrolyte (Figure
8): a sensing electrode, a counter electrode and the reference electrode setting the
potential of the sensing electrode. The system is closed by a membrane permeable
to the gas.
Fig. 11 Commercial design of semiconductor gas sensor (MEMS substrate). (sensor SnO
O2
Microsens). [26]
later. For p-type semiconductors, the gases have the opposite effect. However,
other phenomena may render ambiguous the variation of conductivity.
The main advantages of these sensors are: high sensitivity, simple signal
(variable resistance), easy insertion in electronic boards, low cost (can be
produced in high volumes with standard techniques) and long life time. The main
drawback of these sensors is the selectivity which limits its use as accurate
instruments.
However, there are different ways to achieve greater selectivity. As discussed
above, the temperature play an important role to enhance the selectivity, the
surface modification of the oxides by metal catalyst [27] and selective filters can
be used as alternative solutions.
The aim of the utilization of the selective filter consists on the elimination of
certain gases before their reactions with the sensitive material, the filter acts as a
barrier and block certain interfering gases [28-30].
The most used oxides are: SnO2 (usually doped with catalytic metals) for CH4,
CO, hydrocarbons [31], WO3 undoped for NO2 [32, 33], doped with catalytic metal
for hydrogen [34, 35] or Ga2O3 for CO in gas burners and exhaust pipes [36].
Fig. 12 Left) LuPc2 molecule. Lu atom bridges the 2 planes. Right) Optical absorption
spectra for LuPc2 molecules in neutral, oxidized or reduced state (in solution a) or in solid
film b))
The interest of using these molecules was shown in reference [41] on an optical
fiber although the response time was terribly long.
NO2 can be reversibly bound with Lutetium bisphthalocyanine (LuPc2)
resulting in the oxidation of the molecule which can be detected trough a change
of the absorption spectrum in NIR (Figure 13). The diffusion of NO2 in LuPc2 is
very slow leading to a very long response time if the grain size or the thickness of
the layer is important. To avoid this effect, LuPc2 was dispersed in the pores of a
porous matrix in such a way that the grain size remains small leading to short
response times.
Fig. 13 Spectrum of LuPc2 incorporated in the silica matrix on glass substrates after
exposure to NO2 at 10 ppm
16 M. Debliquya et aal.
All fire detection system ms rely on the monitoring of physical phenomena takinng
place during a combustio on: release of heat, release of gases (CO2, CO, NOx, etc)
and release of particles [43-45]. Different strategies can be imagined but aan
important item is the costt of the installation. For the industry, the protection of thhe
installations is essential and the investment for the fire protection can be moderaate
compared the total value. For domestic detectors, on the contrary, the challengge
remains the cost and a trad deoff must be found.
Usually, the fires are distinguished
d between smouldering and flaming fires. Foor
the flaming fires, an im mportant amount of heat is released and is directlly
destructive. In that casee, the detection needs to be very fast. Moreover, thhe
quantity of particles can n be very low for clean fires (burning of solvents foor
instance).
For smouldering fires, on the contrary, the generated heat is small but thhe
quantity of gases and parrticles is important. The detection of these fires is baseed
on the detection of particlles or gases or a combination. The danger of these fires is
double: they can suddenly evolve to a flaming fire and they release largge
quantities of toxic gases like CO and HCN. If not detected on time, humans ddie
from suffocation.
Review of the Use of the Optical Fibers for Safety Applications 17
Fig. 15 Sketched optical refllected spectra of the pair of gratings – a) unexposed exposed to
IR radiation and b) exposed to IR radiation
In order to increase thee sensitivity, the coated grating is put in a thin glass tubbe
exploiting then a greenh house effect. Using a reflecting packaging (aluminum m
tube), the radiation may be b concentrated on the coated grating and the sensitivitty
is further enhanced (Figurre 16).
In this part, we will review the main optical fiber sensing configurations reported
for methane and hydrogen sensing and present their performances. Let us mention
that the conventional detection systems are based on electrochemical cells and
semiconductors as described before.
6 Conclusions
Sensors are continuously developed for pollution monitoring, fire detection and
explosive gas monitoring. In this wide range of applications, optical fiber sensors
constitute a growing sector for which pioneer researches date back to only three
decades. Their numerous and unique advantages bring them to the forefront for
safety applications in gas production and transport sites, wide tunnels and car
parks. The key parameter there is the ability of optical fiber sensors to provide
numerous sensing points shared by one single interrogation device, yielding a
relatively easy installation and an affordable price for the complete solution. One
Review of the Use of the Optical Fibers for Safety Applications 21
can think that future developments will contribute to further improve their
performances, in particular in terms of selectivity and robustness. And so, they
will certainly become more widespread. This chapter has presented a review of the
main state-of-the-art solutions in the field of air quality monitoring, in particular
NO2 that is representative of toxic automotive pollution, flaming fire detection and
combustible gas leak detection (methane and hydrogen).
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