Computational Evaluation of Coating Materials for Humidity Sensing using Fiber Bragg Grating

Humidity is a prominent pollutant that must be regulated as well as a process variable that must be assessed in industrial applications. Humidity can degrade service quality, impair manufacturing equipment, and hikes the operating expenses considerably. Currently, demand for accurate humidity sensing significantly increases in various fields. Optical based sensors seek attention towards humidity sensing due to their inherent properties like multiplexing, accuracy and durability. For transducing humidity into a measurable parameter, coating materials contribute significantly. The performance of coating materials used for humidity monitoring was analyzed in terms of their thickness, response time, sensitivity and their compatibility in harsh environments. Four different types of coating materials such as PVAc, Agarose, PMMA and Polyimide were analyzed in terms of sensitivity, thickness, response time, resolution limit of detection and application.