Transdutores a fibra ótica baseados em redes de período longo em cascata para avaliação da mistura petrodiesel-biodiesel

Abstract

The Biodiesel presents itself as one of the most promising environment friendly alternatives to the use of fossil fuels. The lack of a suitable sensor to measure the quality of biodiesel in the petrodiesel-biodiesel blend consists a great research opportunity. This work presents the implementation of a recording system of long period gratings, through the point-by-point technique of lateral exposure to ultraviolet radiation from a KrF Excimer laser operating at 248 nm, at Laboratório de Laser of UTFPR with the goal of producing a transducer that can quantify the proportion of petrodiesel and biodiesel blends through the changes in the refraction index. To evaluate the gratings sensitivity to the refraction index of the external environment, several liquids were used with refraction index ranging from 1.00 to 1.47. Through a reflective coating applied to the extremity of the fiber a kind of device usually called CLPG is obtained. A detail study of samples in contact with both the cavity and the grating, only with the cavity and finally with submerged portions of the cavity. The case of only a small party of the cavity immersed in the substance allows the measure of the refractive index related to signal strength. Finally, the metrological parameters of the system were evaluated indicating a good confiability, mainly for the B60 e B100 blends.