Wide band fiber Bragg grating accelerometer for rotating AC machinery condition monitoring

This paper investigates the use of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) accelerometers for wide band vibration monitoring in a wound rotor induction generator. The sensor performance is assessed in a series of experiments on a laboratory test rig comprising a 30kW induction machine operating under steady state and variable speed regimes. Vibration measurements are investigated in the frequency domain for generator fault specific electromagnetically induced vibration components. The fiber optic sensor effectiveness in detection of wide band spectral effects (<1kHz) in the vibration signal is compared with that of a commercial piezoelectric based solution. The potential and limitations of the prototype wide band FBG accelerometer are evaluated for use in vibration monitoring applications.