Design of a Fiber Grating Sensor for Abutment Pressure and Its Performance Test

In order to solve problems of poor testing precision, bad anti-interference and unreliability caused by water erosion, an abutment pressure sensor with circular cylinder structure was designed and implemented on the basis of fiber grating sensing principle. The sensor only senses changes of abutment pressure without radial pressure and takes fiber as transmitting medium to avoid influence of water and gas. The result of corresponding mechanical calibration test showed the sensor has good linear relationship with abutment pressure and has sensitivity coefficient of 20~30 pm/N and high precision. The result of similar simulation experiment showed that abutment pressure of a point in front of working face conforms to actuality, namely increasing gradually first then trending to stability caused by mining, which verifies feasibility of the sensor for measuring abutment pressure.