Dynamic mechanical characterization with respect to temperature, humidity, frequency and strain in mPOFs made of different materials

This paper presents a dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of polymer optical fibers (POFs) to obtain their Young modulus with respect to the variation of strain, temperature, humidity and frequency. The POFs tested are made of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Topas grade 5013, Zeonex 480R and Polycarbonate (PC). In addition, a step index POF with a core composed of Topas 5013 and cladding of Zeonex 480R is also analyzed. Results show a tradeoff between the different fibers for different applications, where the Zeonex fiber shows the lowest Young modulus among the ones tested, which makes it suitable for high-sensitivity strain sensing applications. In addition, the fibers with Topas in their composition presented low temperature and humidity sensitivity, whereas PMMA fibers presented the highest Young modulus variation with different frequencies. The results presented here provide guidelines for the POF material choice for different applications and can pave the way for applications involving the combination of different polymer materials.

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