Optical fiber as the basis for creating a liquid boiling alarm

Abstract

Currently, a liquid boiling alarm is used to control the boiling point of a liquid in various technological processes. Most of these alarms are electrical devices and cannot be used in fire-hazardous areas and when controlling the boiling of flammable liquids, as well as using such alarms, telemetry measurements are quite difficult to implement. Therefore, this article considers the possibility of using optical fiber, widely used in fiber-optic communication lines, to create a liquid boiling alarm, which allows fire safety when controlling the boiling of flammable liquids and makes it possible to carry out remote monitoring. It is determined that when the boiling point of the liquid is reached, the reflection coefficient changes from the interface between the media – the core of the fiber and the liquid. As a result, the power of the optical signal reflected back into the fiber from the interface of such media increases. An increase in the power of the reflected signal to a certain value indicates that the boiling point of the liquid has been reached. It was found that when the boiling point was reached, an increase in the information parameter was observed, which is the difference between the attenuation value on the reflectometer scale at the maximum point for the peak of the single-mode telecommunication optical fiber reflectogram and the attenuation value on the reflectometer scale before the peak of this reflectogram. Therefore, such a parameter can be used to determine whether the boiling point of a liquid has been reached. Thus, the possibility of using optical fiber to create a liquid boiling alarm is shown.