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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 16, NO. 16, AUGUST 15, 2016

Development of Level Sensors Based on Fiber

Bragg Grating for Railway Track Differential
Settlement Measurement
Chun Cheung Lai, Ho Yin Au, Michael S. Y. Liu, Siu Lau Ho, and Hwa Yaw Tam, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract This paper describes the development of a liquid
level sensor based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) written
in 80-m diameter optical fiber for railway track differential
settlement measurement. The FBG embedded in the sensor is
affixed to a float installed inside the liquid-filled sensor body,
which measures the upthrust force induced by the float in
response to the variations of liquid level. The level measurement
and the temperature operation range of the sensor are 022 mm
and 30 C to 80 C, respectively. Experimental results show
that the sensitivity of the sensor is 0.107 nm/mm, which matches
well with the designed value.
Index Terms Fiber optic sensors, level sensors, settlement
sensors.

I. I NTRODUCTION

N RECENT years, many railway systems have been constructed in different countries, some of them are spanned
long distances with different geographical environments, settlement is therefore difficult to completely avoided. Track
settlement in railway systems occurs when the ballast and
substrate undergoes non-elastic deformation and cannot return
to its original position. The severity depends on the stiffness
of the structure and materials of the track, as well as the
geotechnical performance and loading [1]. Differential settlement occurs when the levels of settlement are different in the
left and right track [2]. Geotechnical deficiencies may cause
serious differential settlements that may amplify the dynamic
reaction in the train-track system, and hence inducing rapid
track degradation, lowering passenger comfort and posing
higher derailment risk [3]. Thus, monitoring of settlement is
vital for improvement of safety and operational efficiency in
railway industry. Settlement measurement in this environment
is very difficult and costly due to its extreme temperature
condition, inaccessibility, lack of power sources, as well as
the measurement points could have significant distances apart.
Conventional soil strain gauges have been used for settlement
Manuscript received January 24, 2016; revised May 21, 2016; accepted
May 22, 2016. Date of publication May 30, 2016; date of current version
July 18, 2016. This work was supported by the Smart Railway Research
Laboratory and the Photonics Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The associate editor
coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication
was Dr. Anna G. Mignani.
C. C. Lai, H. Y. Au, M. S. Y. Liu, and S. L. Ho are with
the Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (e-mail: k.lai@polyu.edu.hk; david.au@polyu.edu.hk;
shun-yee.michael.liu@polyu.edu.hk; eeslho@polyu.edu.hk).
H. Y. Tam is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, and also with the Photonic Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hong Kong (e-mail: hwa-yaw.tam@polyu.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2016.2574622

measurement by which the settlement level is estimated by

measuring the vertical and horizontal strains of the ballast
layers [1]. Global positioning system (GPS) devices [4] have
also been used to monitor the lateral movements of horizontal and vertical displacement where the settlement occurs.
Unfortunately, measurements provided by these methods are
not accurate enough for rail settlement monitoring because
small deviations could have serious safety consequences.
Commercially available settlement sensors are mainly electronic type [5] which based on measuring the resonance
frequency of an embedded vibrating wire [6]. This sensor is
usually employed for civil and structural health monitoring
applications but their performance would be severely affected
by electromagnetic wave interference when it is installed near
railway track.
In this study, an FBG-based level sensor is proposed for
railway track differential settlement measurement. Comparing
to previous study [7], this sensor gives a higher sensitivity
and could be used in hostile environments. Essentially,
FBG possesses the advantages of electrical passivity and hence
immunity to electromagnetic interference, they are also corrosion resistant, have a wide operating temperature [8], [9] and
superior multiplexing capabilities over long distances. These
features render FBG a good alternative sensing element for
applications under extreme environmental conditions. Typical
applications of FBG sensor are structural health monitoring of
bridges, railways and buildings [10][13]. For the proposed
settlement measurement, multiple level sensor units can be
cascaded and interrogated by single wavelength measurement
equipment. A distributed sensor network for measuring local
settlements over wide area can therefore be constructed when
a common reference level is available.
II. S ENSING P RINCIPLE
The FBG is constructed by periodical modifications of
the refractive index in the core of single-mode optical fiber.
It is usually fabricated by phase mask technique in which
a short section of optical fiber is illuminated by ultra-violet
laser source under a phase mask [14]. The FBG reflects an
optical signal that matches the Bragg condition [15] which is
given by B = 2n, where B is the Bragg wavelength, n is
the effective refractive index of the core, and  is the pitch
of the refractive index modulation. The Bragg wavelength of
FBG changes when it is subjected to thermal and mechanical
perturbations that alter the refractive index as well as the pitch
of the FBG.

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LAI et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF LEVEL SENSORS BASED ON FBG FOR RAILWAY TRACK DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT MEASUREMENT

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Therefore,
B
(4)
0.76B
Substituting equation (2), (3), (4) into (1), the relationship
between the variation of liquid level and the change of
wavelength is described as:
 
 
B
a
(1 2) g H A = E
0.76B
  B 
Ea 0.76B
H =
(5)
((1 2) g A)
=

Fig. 1.

Sensing mechanism of the liquid level sensor.

The primary function of the liquid level sensor is to generate

a wavelength shift of the embedded FBG when there is a
change of the liquid level inside the sensor cavity. Fig. 1
illustrates the schematic diagram of the sensing mechanism.
The float is a low density object floating in the liquidfilled sensor body. An optical fiber with an FBG inscribed is
mechanically linked to the float and bottom of the tank so that
the upthrust force of the float can be transferred to the fiber.
Once the optical fiber is tensioned, the float will be steady
and in equilibrium condition. Change of liquid level will alter
the upthrust force, vary the fiber tension and hence inducing
a wavelength change of the FBG.
The upthrust force of the float (Fup) and tension force of
the optical fiber (Ft) of this system can be expressed as:
Fup = Ft
Fup = Ft

(1)

Fup and Ft are the variations of upthrust force and

tension force respectively.
Variation of the upthrust of the float (Fup) caused by the
change of the liquid level can be described as:
Fup = (1 2)g H A

(2)

where H is the variation of the liquid level from the

initial liquid level which is defined as H1-H0, 1 and 2 are
respectively the densities of the liquid and the float, g is the
gravitational acceleration, and A is the cross-sectional area of
the float [16].
The variation of tension force along the fiber can be
written as:
Ft = a
= Ft/a = E
Therefore,
Ft = Ea

(3)

where , a, E and are the stress of the FBG, the crosssectional area of the fiber, Youngs modulus of the fiber
material, and the strain of the fiber respectively.
The relationship between the strain and the wavelength of
FBG [15], [17] is given by:
B= 0.76 B

Hence, the sensitivity of the sensor given in (5) can be

re-written as:
0.76B
B
=
(1 2) g A.
(6)
Sensitivity:
H
Ea
III. D ESIGN OF THE S ENSOR
The structure of the settlement level sensor is shown
in Fig. 2. The main body of the sensor is a stainless steel
container with an air vent at the top and a liquid inlet at
the bottom. The sensor is connected by a flexible tube to a
tank which provides a reference liquid level for the sensor.
Liquid will flow in and out of the sensor through this flexible
tube when there is a change in liquid level in the sensor.
There is also an optical fiber outlet for connection to the
interrogator [18] for wavelength measurement. A fixing screw
on top of the sensor is designed to secure the position of
the float during transportation. The lower part of the float
is fastened to a T-shape sub-assembly which sits on the
mechanical stopper as shown in Fig. 2. The function of a
mechanical stopper is for guiding the vertical movement of
the float during its operation and limiting the position of the
float when no liquid is filled to avoid fiber breakage during
transportation.
The center part of the T-shape sub-assembly is formed by
two rectangular blocks, a V-groove is machined on the surface
of one of these blocks as shown in Fig. 2. The V-groove is
aligned to the center of the float and used for fixing one end of
the sensing fiber. The sensing FBG is inscribed at the middle
of the fiber and the acrylic jacket is re-coated after inscription,
coating of two ends of the FBG are stripped and glued onto
the V-groove of the float and the bottom part of the sensor.
In this situation, all tension force would be transferred to the
float through the optical fiber.
The fiber employed in this study is the 1310-Hp-80 from
Nufern [19]. The core and cladding diameters of this fiber
are 9m and 80m respectively. Since the core diameter is
compatible with standard single mode fiber, splicing of this
fiber does not introduce high insertion loss to the sensor.
Moreover, the advantage of using 80m cladding optical fiber
comparing with conventional 125m one is that higher sensor
sensitivity could be obtained due to its smaller cross-sectional
area which produces a higher strain in the fiber under the same
force as explained by (3).
Fig. 3 shows the photo of the settlement level sensor, the
cylindrical shape sensor has a height of 230mm and a diameter
of 85mm. Since the sensor is designed to work in temperature

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Fig. 3.

Fig. 2.

Photo of the level sensor.

Schematic diagram of the structure of the level sensor.

range of 30C to 80C, SS316 graded stainless steel is

used for machining most of the parts of the sensor. The
properties of this metal are high strength, high creep resistance
as well as excellent mechanical and corrosion-resistant at subzero temperature [20]. ASTM-6210 compliant [21] anti-freeze
coolant having a melting point much lower than ice-point is
employed for the system to avoid liquid freezing. As shown
in Fig. 3, the sensor is equipped with a liquid level observing
window. This window is designed for adjusting the sensor level
during installation. The liquid level should be maintained at
a reference position such that the maximum designed operating range could be achieved. The flexible tubes and fittings
employed are waterproof and corrosion resistant [22], and they
can operate in a wide range of pressure and temperature, which
gives the sensor a relatively high reliability.
For a FBG with Bragg wavelength (B) of 1550nm, the
Youngs modulus (E) and the cross-sectional area (a) of the
silica fiber are 73GPa [17] and 5.026109 m2 (fiber diameter
of 80 m), respectively. The difference in density of the liquid
(anti-freeze coolant) and the float (1-2) is 800kg/m3and

Fig. 4.

Experimental configuration for performance evaluation.

the cross-sectional area ( A) of the float is 4.42103 m2

(diameter of 70mm), the designed sensitivity of this sensor
is 0.1nm/mm as computed by (6).
IV. E XPERIMENT R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
Experimental configuration illustrates in Fig. 4 was constructed to evaluate the performance of the sensor. The setup
comprises the following elements, a tank with anti-freeze
coolant liquid, two settlement level sensors (sensor #1 and
sensor #2), two vertical movement translation stages, an FBG
interrogation system, and a temperature controlled chamber

LAI et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF LEVEL SENSORS BASED ON FBG FOR RAILWAY TRACK DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT MEASUREMENT

Fig. 5.
Measured wavelengths of the two sensors at different vertical
displacements.

for simulating different operation temperatures. In the setup,

the level sensors are connected through a flexible tube and
T-joint to the tank, while the optical fiber outlets of the sensor
are connected to the interrogation system for wavelength measurement. Another flexible tube is connected to the air vents of
the sensors and the tank which forms an enclosed system with
same atmosphere pressure. An additional FBG is connected to
the interrogator for ambient temperature measurement.
The purposes of this experimental set up are to evaluate the
performance of the level sensor and to study the feasibility of
constructing a sensor network using multiple sensors for settlement measurement over wide area. During the experiment,
the translation stage is adjusted to give a vertical displacement
of the sensors from 0 to 22mm in 2mm steps.
Measurement results showing the heights of the translation
stage and wavelengths of the FBG for the two sensors at room
temperature are depicted in Fig. 5. The nominal wavelengths
of sensor #1 and sensor #2 are 1542.9nm and 1555.3nm
respectively. The wavelengths of both sensors decrease linearly
with vertical displacement moving upward. The sensitivity of
sensor #1 and sensor #2 are measured to be 0.103nm/mm
and 0.107nm/mm respectively, both of them are close to the
designed value of 0.1nm/mm. The minor difference between
the sensitivities could have multiple causes such as the density
deviations between the floats and liquid as well as machining
error of the metal parts.
The measured wavelengths of sensor #2 at different temperatures (30C, 10C, 10C, 30C, 50C and 80C) are
as shown in Fig. 6. The slopes of the sensor at the above
temperatures are between 0.1050.107. To quantify the thermal effect, the wavelengths at different temperatures with the
displacement fixed at 12mm for the both sensors #1 and #2 are
shown in Fig 7. The best fitted linear curves show that their
temperature coefficients are 0.0084nm/C and 0.0085nm/C
respectively. The thermal effect of the sensor can be considered
as linear [23], [24] which can be compensated by embedding
additional temperature measuring FBG in the sensor body.
The wavelength deviation between the measured result and
best fitted curves at different temperature is shown in Fig. 8.
The difference is around 0.03nm which corresponds to a
displacement deviation of 0.3mm. The percentage deviation

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Fig. 6. Vertical displacements at different temperatures (30C, 10C,

10C, 30C , 50C and 80C).

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

Temperature characteristic of the sensors.

Variation of wavelengths at different temperatures.

of this level sensor is therefore 1.3% for a measurement

range of 22mm. The vertical displacement deviation is more
significant at extreme temperature (30C, 50C and 80C)
than in normal temperature (10C to 30C), which is around
0 to 0.025nm (0 to 1.1%). The experimental result also
demonstrates that the performance of individual sensors is not
affected by others being connected next to it. Several sensor
units could therefore be multiplexed in a single fiber forming
a sensor network for differential settlement measurement over
wide area.
V. C ONCLUSION
This study describes a FBG based level sensor for liquid
level measurement and a sensor network constructed by these
sensors for monitoring differential settlement of railway track.
Vertical displacement of the sensor relative to a reference level

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changes the liquid level inside the sensor which alters the
tensioning force of the embedded FBG. Experimental results
show high linearity between the vertical displacement and
wavelength shift of the FBG. 80m diameter optical fiber
is used with an aim to enhance the overall sensitivity and
reduce the physical size of the sensor. The sensitivities of
two assembled sensors are 0.103nm/mm and 0.107nm/mm
respectively, both of them are very close to the designed value
of 0.1nm/mm. Temperature effect of the sensor is measured
to be 0.008nm/C which can be compensated by adding
embedded temperature measuring FBG in the sensor or by
external temperature sensor. In addition, several measures
have been incorporated in the sensor design that makes it
capable of operating in extreme environmental conditions.
The sensor gives a measurement error of 1.3% within an
operating range of 30C to 80C. For differential settlement
measurement over long railway track, multiple unites of this
powerless settlement level sensors can be multiplexed to form
a sensing network which is simpler, more cost-effective and
reliable than conventional electronic based counterparts.
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Chun Cheung Lai, photograph and biography not available at the time of
publication.

Ho Yin Au, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

Michael S. Y. Liu, photograph and biography not available at the time of

publication.

Siu Lau Ho, photograph and biography not available at the time of
publication.

Hwa Yaw Tam, photograph and biography not available at the time of
publication.