STRAIN AND PRESSURE 9 Light from a small laser is passed to a set of semi-reflecting glass plates, and some of the light is reflected onto a screen, The rest of the light is aimed at a reflector, so that the reflected beam will return to the glass plates and also be reflected to the screen, Now this creates an interference pattern between the light that has been reflected from the outward beam and the light that has been reflected from the returning beam. If the distant reflector moves by one quarter of a wavelength of light, the light path of the beam to and from the reflector will change by half a wavelength, and the interference will change between constructive and destructive, Since this is a light beam, this implies that the illumination on the sereen will change between bright and dark. A photocell can measure this change, and by connecting the photocell through an amplifier to a digital counter, the number of quarter wavelengths of movement of the distant reflector can be measured electronically ‘The interferometer is often much too sensitive for many purposes. For example, the effect of changing temperatures is not easy to compensate for, though this can be done by using elaborate light paths in which the wo interlering beams have travelled equal distances, one in line with the stress and the other in a path at right angles, An advantage of this method is that no physical connection is made between the points whose distance is being measured; there is no wite or semiconductor strip joining the points the main body of the another. ‘The distance between the main part of the device and the reflector is not fixed, the only restraint being that the distance must not exceed the coherence distance for the laser. This is the average distance over ‘which the light remains coherent, and is usually at least several metres for a laser source. nterferometer is in one place and the tellector ia 1.3 Fibre optic methods Developments in the manufacture and use of optical fibres have led to these devices being used in the measurement of distance changes. The optical fibre (Figure 1.9) is composed of glass layers and has a lower refractive index for the outer layer than for the inner. This has the effect of uapping a light beam inside the fibre because of the total internal reflection effect Figure 1.10). When a light ray passes straight down a fibre, the number of internal reflections will be small, but ifthe fibre is bent, then the number of reflections will be considerably increased, and this leads to an increase in the distance travelled by the light, causing a change in the time needed, and hence to a change in the phase. ‘This change of phase can be used ta detect smnall movements by using the type of arrangement shown in Figure 111. The two jaws will, as they move together, force the optical fibre to take up a corrugated shape in ‘which the light beam in the fibre will be reflected many times. The extra10 SENSORS AND TRANSDUCERS Figure 19 Optical fibre contruction, ‘The optical fibte is nota single material but a coaxial an are different and refvact light to different extents (refractivity) so that any light ray striking the junction between the materials it reflected hack and so trapped inside the fibre {gure 1.10 Total internal reflection, When a ray of light passes from an optically dense (highly telractive) material into a less dense material, its path is relracted away from the original direction (a) and more in line with the surface. At some angle (b), the refracted beam will travel parallel to the surface, and at glancing angles (c), the beam is completely reflected. The use of two types of glass in an optical fibre ensures that the surface is always between the same two materials, and the outer glass i les refractive than the inner so as to ensure reflection, distance travelled by the beam will cause a delay that can be detected by interferometry, using a second beam from an unchanged fibre, The sensor must be calibrated over its whole range, because there is no simple relation- ship between the amount of movement and the amount by which the light is delayed,STRAIN AND PRESSURE u Figure LL Using optical fibres to detect small distance changes, The movement of the jam distorts one fibre, forcing the light paths to take many more reflections and thus increasing the length of the total light path, An interference pattern can be obtained by comparing this to light from a fibre that is not distorted, and the movement of the pattern corresponds to the distortion of one fibre. The sensitivity is not so great as that of direct interferometry, and the use of fibres makes the rmethod more generally useful, particularly in dark liquids or other surroundings ‘where light beams could not normally penetrate 1.4 Pressure gauges Pressure in a liquid or a gas is defined as the force acting per unit area of surface. This has the same units as mechanical stress, and for a solid material, the forcejarea quantity is always termed stress rather than pressure, For a solid, the amount of stress would he calculated, either from Knowledge of force and area of crossesection, or from the amount of strain, Where the stress is exerted on a wire or girder, the direct calculation of stress may be possible, but since strain can be measured by clectronic methods, it is usually easier to make use of the relationship shown in Table LL ‘Young's modulus is a quantity that is known for each material, or which can be measured for a sample of material. ‘The stress is stated in units of