This paper presents high-sensitivity, micromachined all-fiber Fabry-Pérot interferometric (FFPI) strain gauges and their integration in a force balance for hypersonic aerodynamic measurements. The FFPI strain gauge has a short Fabry-Pérot cavity fabricated using an excimer laser etching process, and the deformation of the cavity is detected by a white-light optical phase demodulator. A three-component force balance, using the proposed FFPI gauges as sensing elements, was fabricated, calibrated, and experimentally evaluated. To reduce thermal output of the balance, a simple and effective self-temperature compensation solution, without external temperature sensors, is proposed and examined through both oven heating and wind tunnel runs. As a result of this approach, researchers are able to use the balance continuously throughout a wide range of temperatures. During preliminary testing in a hypersonic wind tunnel with a free stream Mach number of 12, the measurement accuracies of the balance were clearly improved after applying the temperature self-compensation.
Keywords: aerodynamic force balance; all-fiber Fabry–Pérot interferometer; hypersonic wind tunnel; strain gauge; temperature self-compensation.