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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

improvised explosive devices, IED, slab-coupled optical fiber sensors, SCOS

College

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a leading cause of the deaths of soldiers in militarized areas. Technology is being developed to disarm IEDs by coupling electrical energy in the blasting caps of the IEDs, but in order to do so effectively, a sensor needs to be capable of measuring the voltage potential between the leads of the blasting caps without altering the electric field between them. Slab-coupled optical fiber sensors (SCOS) are electric field sensing devices that have been developed at BYU and are best suited to solving this problem, as they have the capability to measure extremely large electric fields with minimal effect on the field itself. I researched the possibility of measuring high-voltage pulses with SCOS, and found that SCOS fabricated with a polymer waveguides are capable of sensing a high-voltage pulse.

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