Hybrid fiber optic voltage sensor for remote monitoring of electrical submersible pump motors

Abstract

We report on the design and experimental evaluation of the hybrid fiber Bragg grating (FBG) piezoelectric voltage sensor developed specifically for remote monitoring of electrical submersible pump (ESP) motors. Unlike a previously reported transducer based on a single piezoelectric element, the voltage rating of the presented device could be as low as 500 V due to the use of a multilayer piezoelectric stack as the primary voltage-to-strain transducer. This enables the use of such sensors across a wider range of ESP applications, which often have subkilovolt voltage ratings. In addition to the design details, we present details of the full characterization of the device, including the hysteresis and temperature-dependence characteristics and discuss ways of eliminating or reducing these effects. We also demonstrate that the sensor can be used to simultaneously measure voltage and temperature.