A Compact Fiber-Optic Flow Velocity Sensor Based on a Twin-Core Fiber Michelson Interferometer

A novel fiber-optic flow velocity sensor based on a twin-core fiber Michelson interferometer has been proposed and demonstrated. The sensor only is a segment of twin-core fiber acting as cylinder cantilever beam. The force exerted on the cylinder by the slow flow speeds of order mm/s of the fluid with unknown velocity bends the fiber, which corresponds to the shift of the phase of the twin-core in-fiber integrated Michelson interferometer.