Wide-range fiber-optic strain sensor

A wide-range strain sensor which utilizes optical fiber as the transducing element is reported. This device differs from the well-known microbend type sensor in that a roller chain is used to impose constant curvature bends on the fiber, rather than a corrugated plate which imposes sinusoidal bends in the microbend sensors. This change also leads to a wide range of sensitivity adjustment and a linear calibration curve.