Industrial Productivity and Manufacturing
Technology
Pressure Measurement Sensor
At one time or another, everybody is forced to work under high pressure.
But that stress is no match for the cruel and harsh conditions inside internal
combustion engines.
FFPI Industries, Inc. of Bryan, Texas is the manufacturer of fiber-optic
sensors that furnish accurate pressure measurements in internal combustion
chambers. Such an assessment can help reduce pollution emitted by these
engines.
A chief component in the sensor owes its seven year-long development
to Lewis Research Center funding to embed optical fibers and sensors in
metal parts. NASA support to Texas A&M University played a critical
role in developing this fiber optic technology and led to the formation
of FFPI Industries and the production of fiber sensor products.
FFPI Industries draws its name from use of a fiber optic Fabry-Perot
interferometer. This sensing element is the basis for the company's in-cylinder
pressure transducer. Engine pressure sensors and signal conditioning units
were introduced in 1995 as the first products from FFPI Industries.
Robert Atkins, President and CEO of FFPI Industries predicts that a
vast market for the firm's products is likely to emerge. "Sensors
are the key to industrial monitoring and control systems designed to lower
equipment maintenance cost, improve fuel economy, reduce atmospheric pollution,
and provide a safer workplace," Atkins says.
| When mounted in an engine, FFPI Industries'
fiber optic sensors can relay information to a control system that automatically
adjusts the engine for smoother operation. |
FFPI sensors are enclosed in a housing similar in dimension to a spark
plug. A metal jacket protects the device from the high temperatures and
pressures that it is to measure. The sensor can be mounted in a threaded
port in the engine's cylinder head or in a standard pressure monitoring
port external to the engine.
Fiber optic technology allows the sensor to survive at much higher temperatures
than conventional pressure sensors. Additionally, the FFPI sensor is immune
to electromagnetic interference, offering another advantage over conventional
sensors for industrial applications. Once in place, the sensor relays information
to a control system that can automatically adjust the engine for smoother
operation.
Clean Air Act provisions and energy savings are sparking keen industrial
interest in the FFPI sensor. Legislation has called for operators of large
internal combustion engines to seek a reduction in harmful emissions to
10-50 percent of present levels. Retrofitting the largest class of reciprocating
engines with precombustion chambers and/or catalytic converters would entail
significant cost. Utilizing the fiber optic engine pressure sensor as one
economical solution to emission reduction in large engines is a reasonable
idea.
FFPI sensors have measured pressure reliably for thousands of hours
in large Clark and Worthington engines in facilities operated by Tenneco
Energy Corporation and Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company. Some 40,000
hours of in-cylinder operation by the sensors, without mechanical failure,
have been attained in a pipeline engine. Pressures up to 1000 psi under
maximum load at 300 rpm were experienced by the sensors, along with soaring
temperatures upwards of 300 degrees centigrade. The sensors have also operated
in General Electric and AMD Diesel Locomotive engines under even more demanding
conditions: temperatures over 800 degrees Celsius and pressures over 2500
psi.
| Graduate student Han-Sun Choi (left) and
Dr. Henry Taylor of Texas A&M University test fiber optic temperature
sensors. FFPI Industries tests each of its sensors on an engine with a
computer calibration system before shipping. |
The simple, rugged design of the sensor offers the potential for mass
production at low cost. The company envisions many other sensing applications
for the basic technology, including:
- vibration sensors for turbine engines and pumps;
- temperature sensors for semiconductor integrated chip processing;
- biomedical pressure and temperature sensors;
- embedded strain and acoustic sensors for "smart structures"
such as aircraft wings and bridges; and
- sensors for monitoring chemical constituents in gases and liquids.
Widespread application of the new technology is foreseen, says Atkins
of FFPI Industries, from natural gas transmission, oil refining and electric
power generation to rail transport and the petrochemical paper product
industry.
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