Fabry-Perot Sapphire Temperature Sensor for Use in Coal Gasification

Sapphire fiber based temperature sensors are exceptional in their ability to operate at temperatures above 1000C and as high as 1800C. Sapphire fiber technology is emerging and the fiber is available commercially. Sapphire fiber has a high loss, is highly multi-mode and does not have a solid cladding, but it is nonetheless very useful in high temperature applications. Of the available interferometer configurations, Fabry-Perot interferometers are distinguished in their high accuracy and great isolation from sources of error.

In this thesis, improvements are reported to an existing design to enhance its reliability and to reduce possible modes of failure. The existing high temperature sensor design has shown a lot of potential in the past by continuously measuring the temperature in a coal gasifier for 7 months, but its true potential has not yet been realized. The goal of this work and the work of many others is to extend the working life and reliability of high-temperature optical sapphire temperature sensors in harsh environments by exploring a solid cladding for sapphire fiber, improved fringe visibility sapphire wafers and a new sensor design. This project is supported by the National Energy and Technology Laboratory of the Department of Energy.