Ye, Chen-ChunStaines, Stephen E.James, Stephen W.Tatam, Ralph P.Daniele, InaudiEric, Udd2012-07-232012-07-232002-12-31Chen-Chun Ye, Stephen E. Staines, Stephen W. James, and Ralph P. Tatam. A polarisation maintaining fibre Bragg grating interrogation system for multi- axis strain sensing. Proceedings of the SPIE Smart Structures and Materials 2002: Smart Sensor Technology and Measurement Systems. Monday 18 March 2002, San Diego, CA, USA. Volume 4694, 195. Eds. Daniele Inaudi, Eric Udd0277-786Xhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.472618http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/7411Fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) written into polarisation maintaining (PM) fibres have been employed for multi-axis strain and temperature sensing. In this paper we report the development of a FBG interrogation system that is capable of detecting independently the two orthogonally polarised signals reflected from a PM FBG. The interrogation system imposes no limitation on the measurable strain range. This relaxes the requirements on the bandwidth of the grating spectrum, allowing the use of a shorter PM FBG (larger bandwidth) for sensing applications where a higher spatial resolution is required. In particular, this system is useful in the cases where the spectra of the reflected polarised signals are broadened or split, resulting from strain-induced structural changes of the PM fibre, or caused by the application of a non-uniform strain on the FBG.Fibre Bragg gratingInterrogation systemMulti-axis strain sensorPolarisation maintainingConference paper