Design principle for sensing coil of fiber-optic current sensor based on geometric rotation effect

Abstract

The design principle exploiting the geometric rotation effect for the sensing coil of the fiber-optic current sensor (FOCS) on the basis of the polarization-rotated reflection interferometer is investigated. The sensing coil is formed by winding the low birefringence single-mode optical fiber in a toroidal spiral. The effects of the linear birefringence on the scale factor of the sensor can be suppressed with the reciprocal circular birefringence by appropriately designing the geometric parameters of the sensing coil. When the rated current is 1200 A(rms), the designed sensing coil can ensure the scale factor error of the sensor to satisfy the requirements of the 0.2 S class specified in IEC60044-8 over a temperature range from -40 °C to 60 °C.