Agradecimentos: The authors thank Jose Aparecido and Claudecir Biazoli for their technical support. This work was supported in part by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under Grant 2017/25666-2, Grant 2016/25196-3, and Grant 2014/50632-6, in part by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), in part by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal e Nivel Superior (CAPES) under Grant 001, and in part by the Projeto TECCON II with Transmissoras Brasileiras de Energia (TBE) through the Framework of the R&D Program of the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency under Grant PD-2615-0011/2015. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was Dr. Anuj K. Sharma. (Corresponding author: Eric Fujiwara.) Ver menos

Abstract: An optical fiber anemometer based on a flexible multi-FBG curvature sensor is reported. The probe is comprised of a structured polymer shell with embedded single-mode fibers with written fiber Bragg gratings. When the sensor is bent, the different spectral shift of the Bragg wavelengths allows the determination of the mechanical stimulus. Moreover, the probe was also used as a cantilever sensor for assessing the airflow speed in a wind tunnel. The sensor presented sensitivities of 0.8 nm/m(-1) and 1.05 pm/(m/s) for curvature and square speed measurements, respectively, and the sensing characteristics can be improved by simply changing the material and the geometry of the bulk polymer shell, providing a versatile and feasible probe for the mechanical and flow measurements Ver menos