A Fiber-Optic Multi-Stress Monitoring System for Power Transformer

A fiber-optic multi-stress monitoring system which uses 4 FBG sensors and a fiber-optic mandrel acoustic emission sensor is proposed. FBG sensors and a mandrel sensor measure different types of stresses occurring in electrical power transformer, such as temperature and acoustic signals. The sensor system uses single broadband light source to address the outputs of both sensors using single fiber-optic circuitry. An athermal-packaged FBG is used to supply quasicoherent light for the Sagnac interferometer demodulation which processes the mandrel sensor output. The proposed sensor system could simplify the optical circuit for the multi-stress measurements and enhance the cost-effectiveness of the sensor system.