An optical fibre vortex sensor for flowrate measurements

Abstract An optical fibre vortex shedding flowmeter is presented, which uses the detected light intensity variations induced by the vortices at the output of a multimode optical fibre in order to determine the vortex shedding frequency. This frequency gives a measure of the flowrate crossing the flowmeter. The device is tested on industrial test rigs in the case of water flow. Applications of such an optical fibre device could be found in industrial processes where the flowrate of explosive media has to be measured or in areas with strong electromagnetic interferences.