Patent Application
20070247613
This application is directed to the field of motion sensing and, more particularly, to motion sensing using an optical acceleration sensor such as a fiber optic accelerometer.
Vibration sensing and analysis are useful tools in monitoring and diagnosing performance of machine components and other objects. In particular, vibration analysis may be used to assess the component health of rotating machines such as rotor shafts and bearings as well as inside generators to assess vibration of stator bars and end-windings. An accelerometer may measure the vibration. However, in instances where strong electrical fields may be present, a conventional electronic accelerometer may not be acceptable since the strong electrical fields may interfere with operation of the conventional electronic accelerometer. In such cases, it may be desirable to use fiber optic accelerometers that do not include metallic or conductive components that would be adversely affected in a strong electrical field.
Known vibration analysis systems include the use of optical accelerometers that measure characteristics of light, including light intensity and phase, reflected from a mass which moves in response to accelerations and vibrations. (See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,265 to Chatrefou, U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,255 to Watanabe, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,674 to Anderson, et al., which are incorporated herein by reference.) Vibrations may also be determined by analyzing birefringence of light reflected from parallel, partially reflective plates that move with respect to each other, such as by Fabry-Perot interferometry. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,894 to Swierkowski, U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,095 to Wan, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,612 to Rhême, which are incorporated herein by reference.) Such interferometry analysis is generally complex and may be expensive to implement and operate.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an optical acceleration sensor for vibration and other motion analysis that may be fabricated, implemented and operated simply and at relatively low cost.
According to the system described herein, a sensor includes a target having a reflective portion and a non-reflective portion. A conveyor causes light to be irradiated on the target. A receiver receives light from the target. An inertial mass is coupled to at least one of the conveyor and the receiver, wherein movement of the inertial mass relative to the target causes a change in intensity of an amount of light impinging on the reflective portion and the non-reflective portion to change an amount of light received at the receiver.
The conveyor and the receiver may be optical fibers and may be disposed at least partially in an opaque conduit and held substantially parallel. Ends of the optical fibers may face the target and extend by a jutting portion beyond the inertial mass, wherein acceleration components between 0.5 g and 160 g cause both of the ends of the fibers to move with a substantially identical movement response. The inertial mass may be attached to both the conveyor and the receiver so that movement of the inertial mass causes a substantially identical movement of the conveyor and the receiver.
The target may include a two-face mirror having first and second faces disposed at a 90 degree angle with respect to each other and at a 45 degree angle with respect to incident and reflected light beam paths. The change in light intensity of the light received by the receiver may be responsive to movement of the inertial mass in one dimension only, that may be transversal to a plane of the conveyor and the receiver or perpendicular to an interface of the non-reflective portion and the reflective portion, and the movement of the inertial mass may include deflection resulting from vibration. The change in intensity may result from occulting a portion of a luminous spot formed from incident light on the first face before the being reflected into the receiver, the occultation being a function of the location of the luminous spot on the first face of the mirror. A first amount of the luminous spot reflected to the receiver may be inversely proportional to a second amount of the luminous spot that strikes the non-reflective portion.
The inertial mass, target and ends of the conveyor and receiver may be disposed in a sensor head that has at least one flat edge to align the sensor, and all made of electrically non-conducting materials. The sensor may further include a light source coupled to the conveyor, a detector coupled to the receiver that measures the change in light intensity, and a luminous intensity analyzer coupled to the detector that determines an extent of the movement of the inertial mass based on the change in light intensity.
According further to the system described herein, a target for a fiber optic sensor unit includes a reflective portion that receives a first variable amount of an incident light beam and a non-reflective portion that receives a second variable amount of an incident light beam. Movement of an inertial mass separate from the target causes the first variable amount of the incident light beam and the second variable amount of the incident light beam to vary according to the movement of the inertial mass.
The reflective and non-reflective portions may be disposed on a two-face mirror having first and second faces, both faces forming together an approximately 90 degree angle, the first face receiving the incident light beam under a first incident angle of approximately 45 degrees and reflecting an internally-reflected light beam onto the second face under a second incident angle of approximately 45 degrees, the second face reflecting the internally-reflected light beam received from the first face. The non-reflective portion may occult part of a luminous spot resulting from the incident light beam on the first face of the mirror before being reflected into the receiver, the occultation being a function of the location of the luminous spot on the first face. Any change in intensity of the light received by the receiver may be responsive in only one dimension of any movement or component thereof of the inertial mass. The one dimension may be transversal to a plane of the conveyor and the receiver or perpendicular to an interface of the non-reflective portion and the reflective portion. A first amount of the luminous spot reflected to the receiver may be inversely proportional to a second amount of the luminous spot that strikes the non-reflective portion.
According further to the system described herein, a method of determining motion of an object includes providing a target having a reflective portion and a non-reflective portion.
A conveyor is provided that causes light to be irradiated on the target and a receiver is provided that receives light from the target. An inertial mass is coupled to at least one of the conveyor and the receiver, wherein movement of the inertial mass relative to the target causes a change in intensity of an amount of light impinging on the reflective portion and the non-reflective portion to change an amount of light received at the receiver. The change in intensity is measured and used to determining movement of the object. The conveyor and the receiver may be optical fibers. The inertial mass may be attached to both the conveyor and the receiver so that movement of the inertial mass causes a substantially identical movement of the conveyor and receiver. The change in light intensity of the light received by the receiver may be responsive to movement of the inertial mass in one dimension only.
According further to the system described herein, a fiber optic sensor unit includes a target that receives an incident light beam and outputs a reflected light beam. The target includes a reflective portion, wherein movement of the incident light beam with respect to the reflective portion causes a change in intensity of the reflected light beam according to movement of the incident light beam in one dimension only. The target may further include a non-reflective portion that receives a variable amount of the incident light beam, wherein movement of the incident light beam causes the variable amount of the incident light beam impinging on the non-reflective portion to vary according to the movement of the incident light beam and causes the change in intensity of the reflected light beam. The movement of the incident light beam may be caused by movement of an inertial mass separate from the target.
Embodiments of the system are described with reference to the several figures of the drawings, in which:
Referring now to the figures of the drawings, the figures comprise a part of this specification and illustrate exemplary embodiments of the described system. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the system may be shown schematically or may be exaggerated or altered to facilitate an understanding of the system.
Light of a given luminous intensity travels from light source 22 through the fiber 20 and strikes a first reflecting surface 142 of the mirror 140 along a light path 101. The first reflecting surface of the mirror 140 forms an approximately 45° angle with the light path 101 of the incident light. The incident light is then reflected with an approximately 90° angle along a light path 102 to the second reflecting surface 144 of the mirror 140 which forms an approximately 90° orthogonal plane with the first reflecting surface 142 of the mirror 140. Incident light on the second reflecting surface 144 of the mirror 140 is reflected again along a light path 103 as light which is parallel to the initial incident light and oriented in the opposite direction of the initial incident light. The end 130 of the second fiber 30 may be located so as to receive the light reflected from the second reflecting surface 144 along the light path 103 and the differential between the luminous intensities of the incident light conveyed by the fiber 20 and the reflected light received by the fiber 30 can be measured. The differential may be established by the detector 32 that may be a photoreceptor or other device to measure luminous intensity. Note that angles other than those illustrated herein may be used. Further, it should be noted that, in other embodiments, the system described herein may operate even without the use of a mask or non-reflective portion. That is, even without a mask or non-reflective portion, upon an acceleration of the inertial mass, the angle with which the light signal hits the mirror will vary which will affect the light signal's intensity, albeit by a very small amount.
Light strikes the first reflecting surface 142 of the mirror 140, forming a luminous spot 101a, which may be a circle in the case of cylindrical projection of the light from the fiber 20. At the resting position of the sensor, when no accelerations or vibrations occur, the fibers ends 120 and 130 and mirror 140 may be positioned in such a way that incident light creates the luminous spot 101a that is then reflected onto the second reflecting surface 144 of the mirror 140. A portion of the light impinging the second reflecting surface 144 is occulted, or otherwise not reflected, due to the non-reflective portion 150 and a portion of the light is reflected as a luminous spot 102a into the fiber 30.
In an embodiment, the differential between the luminous intensities of the incident light conveyed by the fiber 20 from the light source 22 and the reflected light received by the fiber 30 results from movement of the luminous spot 102a about the interface 154 of the non-reflective portion 150 and the reflective portion 152 of the mirror 140. A first amount of the luminous spot 102a is reflected from the reflective portion 152 to the optical fiber 30 while a second amount of the luminous spot 102a strikes the non-reflective portion 150. The first amount may be inversely proportional to the second amount in that when the first amount increases the second amount decreases and vice versa. The sum of the first amount and second amount may be a substantially constant value. In some cases, the first amount or the second amount could be zero. In embodiments where the interface 154 is a straight line, the sensor 100 may detect motion in only one direction (i.e., a direction perpendicular to the line formed by the interface 154). In
Although the non-reflective portion 150 is shown as part of the second reflecting surface 144 of the mirror 140, it is contemplated that the non-reflective portion 150 may be incorporated on the first reflecting surface 142 or on both of the surfaces 142, 144. The term “non-reflective” in reference to the non-reflective portion 150 is used generally to indicate a portion that is less reflective than the reflective portion 152 of the mirror 140 and, for example, may be partially non-reflective or substantially completely non-reflective. Further, a design for the mirror 140, according to the system described herein, may include a non-reflective portion 150 that is off of the edge of the mirror. That is, a portion of the incident light beam to the mirror 140 may be reflected by a reflecting surface of the mirror 140 while a portion of the incident light beam may not be reflected because the non-reflected portion of the light beam passes by an edge of the mirror 140 and does not strike the reflecting surface.
When the sensor head 100 is subjected to accelerations or vibrations, the size of the luminous spot 102a may expand and shrink in response thereto based on movement around the interface of the non-reflective portion 150 and the reflective portion 152 of the mirror 140, and the luminous intensity of the luminous spot 102a increases and decreases accordingly. It should be noted that the term “acceleration” used herein may refer to both positive acceleration and negative acceleration (deceleration) and that the term “dimension” used herein may refer to movement in a positive or negative direction. For purposes of the discussion herein, it may be useful to adopt a convention where positive acceleration corresponds to movement in the upward direction in the Y dimension as shown in
In the case of deflection of the inertial mass in a negative direction in the Y dimension as shown in
As shown, movement in the X dimension or the Z dimension is designed to not appreciably change the intensity of the reflected light received by the fiber 30, whereas, as noted above, movement in the Y dimension is designed to change the intensity of the reflected light. Accordingly, the system described herein may provide for detection of movement (acceleration) in one dimension only. The measured movement may be considered as the movement component that is transversal to a plane formed by the conveyor and receiver. Alternatively, the measured movement may be considered as the movement component that is perpendicular to the interface of the non-reflective portion and the reflective portion.
The system described herein provides for vibration analysis in response to acceleration components between any appropriate measuring range, such ranges of 500 to several thousand g,.01 g to .1 g, or any other appropriate range. For some embodiments, the measuring range may be between 0.1 g and 20 g, although sensors having a measuring range of 0.5 g to 160 g may be commercially useful in both what is measured and the availability and combinability of materials used for the sensors. The measuring range depends upon, among other things, the length and stiffness of the optical fibers 20, 30 and the amount (weight) of the mass 110. Note also that it may be possible to measure a relatively large range (e.g., .01 g to several thousand g's) by providing several sensors calibrated for different sub-ranges.
The luminous intensity analyzer 50 may be a stand-alone unit that is coupled to the detector 32 and/or the light source 22 to analyze the differential between the conveyed light from the light source 22 and the light received by detector 32 and determine an extent of movement of the inertial mass (and, accordingly, the object to which the optical acceleration sensor is attached) based on the change in light intensity. Alternatively, the luminous intensity analyzer 50 may form a part of the detector 32, for example as a processor component therein.
In various embodiments, the sensor may be fabricated using no metallic or electrically-conductive parts so as to allow operation in an environment having an electric or electromagnetic field. For example, non-electrically conducting fiber optical material may be used for the conveyor and the receiver and various ceramic materials used for other components that may be selected depending on particular criteria for an application. For example, materials may be selected that are suitable for low temperature operation, room-temperature operation and/or high temperature operation or selected as suitable materials over a varying temperature range. In particular, for example, the opaque conduit containing the conveyor and the receiver may be comprised of commercially-available ceramics, the outer housing of the sensor head may be comprised of commercially-available ceramics, and the inertial mass connected to the conveyor and the receiver may be comprised of commercially-available ceramics. In an embodiment herein, the ceramic material may be Macor® machinable glass ceramic provided by Corning Incorporated of Coming, NY, although any other suitable materials, such as other machinable glass ceramic materials, may be used.
Further, the non-reflective portion of the mirror may be designed as a portion less reflective than the reflective portion and may be comprised of commercially-available ceramics. The non-reflective portion may be implemented using non-reflective paint or by sandblasting a mirror portion. In other embodiments, it is possible to provide a mirror that is 100% reflective and then use an adjustable but fixed obstacle (like a screw) interposed in the path of at least some of the light. For example, an obstacle could be used to interfere with some of the light that would have otherwise reflected from the first reflecting surface 142 to the second reflecting surface 142.
The system described herein offers various structural and operational advantages. As noted above, in an embodiment where no metallic or electrically-conductive part or component are used, the sensor may operate in electric or electromagnetic fields existing in electric machines or in all environments where static electricity is prohibited. The sensor head may be very small, rugged and precise since there are no moving parts except for the relatively small movement of the cantilevered ends of the two fibers. Both fibers may be cantilevered with the same inertial mass, which ensures that both fibers react substantially identically to the same accelerations or vibrations, thereby reducing a source of error or possible bias that might otherwise occur between the incident light and the reflected light. The sensor may measure and identify not only the amount of accelerations or vibrations but also the direction of the accelerations or vibrations (e.g., whether and when the accelerations or vibrations are negative or positive). Further, in the case of oblique or rotational movements, the 90° mirror arrangement eliminates certain motion components, such that the sensor may measure a single dimensional component of any movement, for example the Y dimension as shown in the figures. The sensor may be low cost since no special light emission, special optical fiber grating, nor a special mirror shape or composition are required. Moreover, the use and modus operandi of the sensor may also be conducted simply and at low cost because the upstream luminosity analysis is straightforward and does not require Fabry-Perot or other relatively complex analysis.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the specification or practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/794,115 filed on Apr. 24, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60794115 | Apr 2006 | US |
