In this study, power losses in polymer optical fiber (POF) subjected to cyclic tensile loadings are studied experimentally. The parameters discussed are the cyclic load level and the number of cycles. The results indicate that the power loss in POF specimens increases with increasing load level or number of cycles. The power loss can reach as high as 18.3% after 100 cyclic loadings. Based on the experimental results, a linear equation is proposed to estimate the relationship between the power loss and the number of cycles. The difference between the estimated results and the experimental results is found to be less than 3%.
Keywords: cyclic tensile loading; displacement sensor; plastic optical fiber.