Optical fibre pressure sensing using a frequency modulated laser-based signal processing technique

Range resolved interferometry (RRI) applied to the interrogation of an extrinsic Fabry-Perot based pressure sensor in laboratory and wind tunnel environments is presented. A simple, compact sensor head design was fabricated and subsequently characterised using RRI, which was shown to have a sensitivity of 1.627×10^-3 rad Pa^-1 with a noise standard deviation of 9 Pa over a data rate of 1.5 kHz. When installed in a high-lift wing for surface pressure evaluation during wind tunnel testing, the approach outlined here was able to perform as well as a conventionally employed commercial device for relative static pressure measurements.