We report the development and characterizations of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor coated with different ultraviolet (UV) curable resins. The UV-curable resins were applied on the fiber after the FBG inscription and cured with an UV lamp. One set of samples used the NOA 68 resin and the other used NOA 88. The samples were characterized with respect to the temperature, moisture absorption and strain response. Furthermore, in order to understand the influence of the resin coating on the optical fiber's mechanical properties, tensile tests were performed with the samples. Results show that all samples presented negligible sensitivity to moisture absorption in the 50-min long tests with the fibers immersed in a container filled with distillated water. Regarding the temperature responses, the coated FBGs presented higher sensitivity (13.84 pm/°C for NOA 88 and 12.76 pm/°C for NOA 68) than the uncoated FBGs due to the thermal expansion of the coatings. In the strain tests, all coated and uncoated samples presented similar sensitivities, but with a larger strain range applied for the coated samples (strains higher than 5500 µε) when compared with the uncoated samples (3500 µε). Moreover, the stress-strain curves of the coated samples indicated a Young's modulus one order with magnitude lower than the one of the uncoated silica fiber, where the lowest Young's modulus is 3.84 GPa and was obtained with the NOA 68 coating, which indicates the possibility of obtaining highly sensitive pressure and force sensors.
Keywords: UV-curable resins; fiber Bragg gratings; optical fiber coating; strain sensor; temperature sensor; tensile tests.