2011 Third International Conference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation

Study on Magneto-Optic Balance Type of Optical Fiber Current Transformer

Used in Extra-High Voltage Measurement*

Tang Ming-jie , Cao Jian-an

(Electrical Engineering School of Xi’an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi’an China)

tmj_1030@163.com

Abstract: To suppress the effect of the linear

II. TOPOLOGY AND CONTROL STRATEGY
birefringence in optical fiber sensor on measurement
accuracy, a new topology and control strategy of optical An optical current transformer based on angle-
fiber current transformer (FOCT) based on the principle comparison technology had been reported and been
of magneto-optic balance was proposed, and the constructed using magneto-optical materials and iron
corresponding mathematical model was built, which core surrounding around one current-carrying conductor,
proves the feasibility of this topology and control strategy, which is wounded by coils into which the detectable
a simulation also conducted. The result shows that even if current is injected. The magnetic field produced by the
linear birefringence is high and Faraday rotation angle is detectable current is opposite to that produced by the
large, the linear relationship still exists between measured measured current, to maintain Faraday rotation angle of
quality and detectable quality. input light near zero, thus accomplishing measurement.
However, this topology suffers from insulation
Keywords: magneto-optic balance, mathematical problems and also needs to keep the Faraday rotation
model, simulation, the linear relationship, FOCT angle small enough to achieve higher accuracy, that is
the common feature of optical fiber CTs based on
I. INTRODUCTION Faraday rotation effect and limits current measurement
Compared with bulk-optic CTs, optical fiber CTs levels[2].
provide adjustability of the sensitivity and dynamic To solve the problems mentioned above, a new
range, less insertion loss, and a higher signal-to-noise topology and control strategy of optic fiber current
ratio. The linear birefringence in optical fiber CTs has transformer has been proposed, which is shown below.
an impact on the measurement accuracy. To suppress S1
i1
C
the side effect of linear birefringence, methods have AF
S2
n1 n2
i2
been proposed, such as adopting annealed optic fiber, L LP OFC
T1
AF
T2 CCS

introducing large of reciprocal circular birefringence CW

n3

into optic fiber with reflection structure and so on[1]. ϕ1 ϕ2

A
Being different from existing methods, a new topology I
u

and control strategy of optical fiber current transformer PD PIC

(FOCT) based on the principle of magneto-optic
balance has been proposed. The major merit of this
topology is that the linear relationship between
measured quality and detectable quality still exists
without loss of accuracy even if the linear birefringence
in optic fiber CTs is high and the Faraday rotation angle
is large.
* Patent Number: 201010227453.X
Figure 1. The proposed topology and control strategy of magneto-
optic balance type of FOCT
As shown in figure 1, the linearly polarized vertical
light coming from LP (Linear Polarizer) is coupled into
T1 (Transmission optic fiber) through OFC (Optic Fiber
Collimator); after transmission through T1, the linearly
polarized vertical light is then sent into S1( Sensing

978-0-7695-4296-6/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE 491

DOI 10.1109/ICMTMA.2011.693
optic fiber), which windings n1 turns around the current- Where, δ1 is the total phase retardation produced by
carrying conductor C (Conductor), and in the magnetic linear birefringence of fiber T1.
field produced by the measured current i1, the direction The Jones Matrix of S1 can be written as [4,5]
of polarization of input light is rotated by an angle φ1 by
⎡A − B1 ⎤
J S1 = ⎢ 1 (5)
A1∗ ⎥⎦
clockwise (without no linear birefringence); the rotated
polarized light once again goes first into T2, and second ⎣ B1
into S2 which windings n2 turns in the internal of Where，
circular CW (enameled wire winding with n3 turns), in
A1 = cos (ψ 1 2) + j sin (ψ 1 2) cos ( χ1 ) (6)
the reverse magnetic field produced by the detectable
current i2, the direction of polarization is one more time
B1 = sin (ψ 1 2 ) sin ( χ1 ) (7)
rotated by an angle φ2 by counterclockwise (without no
linear birefringence); the output light from S2 is then
bought into analyzer A, which outputs the horizontal
ψ1 = 2 (Δ 1
2 ) + ϕ1
2 2
(8)

component of input light; the photo-detector PD

sin ( χ1 ) = 2ϕ1 ψ 1 (9)
converts the detected light intensity into a voltage
signal, which is filtered into PIC controller; the
cos ( χ1 ) = Δ1 ψ 1 (10)
detectable current i2 in CW is adjusted dynamically by
PIC controller through CCS (Controlled Current Where, ∆1is the total linear birefringence phase
Source), to keep φ1=－φ2. AF stands for annealed fiber. retardation of fiber S1, φ1 is the Faraday rotation angle.
So, in the closed-loop control, the horizontal The Jones Matrices of T2 and S2 are the same with
component intensity of output light from sensing optic those of T1 and S1 except the subscripts.
fiber S2 is always kept near zero dynamically. This is The output light electric field Eout of S2 is then
the so called magneto-optic balance. As can be shown
Eout = JS2 * JT 2 * JS1 * JT1 * Ein (11)
that the following relationship between the measured
current i1 and the detectable current i2 is satisfied: Where, JT1, JS1, JT2 and JS2 are corresponding to the
n n Jones Matrices of T1, S1, T2 and S2.
i =− 2 3i (1)
1 n1 2 If the transmission optic fiber T1 and T2 are specially
selected to keep the polarization state of input light
III. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
unchanged, that is to say that the Jones matrices JT1
Linearly polarized light may be written in the form [3] and JT2 are unit matrices, then equation (11) could be
⎡ E x ⎤ ⎡cos(ξ )e jδ ⎤ simplified as follows
E =⎢ ⎥=⎢ ⎥ (2)
⎣⎢ E y ⎦⎥ ⎢⎣ sin (ξ ) ⎦⎥ ⎡ Eoutx ⎤ ⎡ − A2 B1 − B2 A1* ⎤
E out = ⎢ ⎥=⎢ (12)
*⎥
⎣ Eouty ⎦ ⎣ − B1 B2 + A1 A2 ⎦
*
Where, |Ex|=cos(ξ), |Ey|=sin(ξ), δ is the phase
difference between Ex and Ey. Under the proposed control strategy, the intensity of
Linearly polarized vertical light is taken as the input, the horizontal component Eoutx of Eout is convergent to
that is zero, that is
⎡0⎤
E =⎢ ⎥
in ⎣1 ⎦
(3) E outx
2
→0 (13)
[4]
The Jones Matrix of T1 can be expressed as follows Based on equation (13), if linear birefringence phase
⎡ j2 δ1
⎤ retardations of sensing optic fiber S1 and S2 are equal to
JT1 =
⎢e 0 ⎥
(4) each other, that is ∆1=∆2, The relationship between
⎢ −j
⎥δ1
Faraday rotation angles φ1 and φ2 is illustrated in the
⎢⎣ 0 e 2 ⎥⎦
figure 2.

492
 From equation (14) and (15), we have equation (1)
and (16) according to Faraday rotation effect.

n2 n3
i1 = k i2 (16)
n1

As can be seen from figure 2 and based on the

equation (1) and (14), the measured current i1 and the
detectable current i2 are in the linear relationship even
Figure 2. The relationship between Faraday rotation angles φ1 and
though the Faraday rotation angle is very large.
φ2 when ∆1 = ∆2

IV. SIMULATION
As can be seen from the above figure, φ1 and φ2
The measured current i1 is a sinusoidal wave with
satisfies
frequency equal to 5Hz and RMS value equal to 1000A
ϕ1 = −ϕ2 (14) ； sensing optic fiber S1 and S2 has the same Verdet
constants, which are V1=V2= 2.58E-6 rad/A, and the
If the linear birefringence phase retardations are
linear birefringence phase retardation δ in unit length in
different from each other due to the vibration,
S1 and S2 is 20°/m (including residual birefringence
temperature variation and stress on the sensing optic
retardation and bending birefringence retardation); the
fiber S1, there also exists an expression similar to
number of turns n1 and n2 corresponding to S1 and S2
equation (14), which is
are both equal to 50, and S1 and S2 has the same
ϕ1 = kϕ2 (15) diameters of the circles formed by themselves, which
are d1= d2=20cm; the number of turns n3 of CW is
Where, k is a proportional coefficient, which
1000.
depends on the absolute difference between the two
The simulation model was built based on the
linear birefringence phase retardations of S1 and S2, and
MATLAB/SIMULINK environment, the following
also k<0.
figures are the results of simulation.
Refer to the parameters given by section Ⅳ , and
suppose that the linear birefringence phase retardation δ
in unit length in S1 changes in the range of (20±2)°
/m due to the vibration, temperature variation and stress
on the sensing optic fiber S1. The relationship between
φ1 and φ2 is shown in the figure 3.

Figure 4. ∆1=580°，∆2=628°

Figure 3. The relationship between φ1 and φ2 with different linear

birefringence phase retardations

From the above figure, it has been seen that the

Figure 5. ∆1=628°，∆2=628°
linear range has decreased from 70° to 5°.

493
 1%, When 2μVNI is smaller than 31 ° , the error
between sin(2μVNI) and 2μVNI is within 5%. In other
words, the linear birefringence and the Faraday rotation
angle has to be reduced simultaneously to a certain
degree to achieve higher accuracy.
However, in the proposed topology and control
strategy in this paper, when the total linear
Figure 6. ∆1=670°，∆2=628° birefringence phase retardations of sensing optical fiber

Where, ∆1 and ∆2 are the total linear birefringence S1 and S2 are equal to each other, even if the linear

retardations corresponding to S1 and S2. birefringence is high and the Faraday rotation angle is

In each of figures, the above part shows the large, the detectable current and the measured current is

measured current i1, and the middle part shows the still in linear relationship with good accuracy, which

detectable current i2, and the below part shows the sees promises in high current measurement.

comparison between i1 and － (n1×n2)／n3×i2. Fig. 5 VI. CONCLUSIONS

shows that i1 and － (n1 × n2) ／ n3 × i2 are almost
In this paper, A new topology and control strategy
coincident when ∆1=∆2, as indicated by equation (1). In
of optical fiber CTs based on the principle of magneto-
other figures, i1 and － (n1×n2)／n3×i2 are different in
optic balance has first been proposed, its mathematical
amplitudes but the same in phase, as indicated by
model been built and simulation been conducted. It has
equation (6). It can be seen that, even though the linear
been shown that when the linear birefringence
birefringence is very high in each of sensing optic fiber
retardations of sensing optic fiber S1 and S2 are equal to
S1 and S2 , the measured current i1 and the detectable
each other, the measured current i1 and the detectable
current i2 are still in linear relationship.
current i2 are still in linear relationship even though the
V. DISCUSSION linear birefringence is high and the Faraday rotation
angle is large. It has also been shown that even if the
In optical fiber CTs based on Faraday rotation effect,
the output light is split into two separate beams which is linear birefringence retardation of sensing optic fiber S1

orthogonal to each other. The two light intensities are changes due to vibration, temperature variation and

obtained by photo-detector. Denote ∆ as the difference stress, the measured current i1 and the detectable current

of the two intensities and ∑ as the sum of them, the i2 are still in linear relationship.

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