Water Contamination in Jet Fuel

This work quantifies water contamination in jet fuel (Jet A-1), using silica-based Bragg gratings. The optical sensor geometry exposes the evanescent optical field of a guided mode to enable refractometery. Quantitative analysis is made in addition to the observation of spectral features consistent with emulsification of water droplets and Stokes’ settling. Measurements are observed for cooling and heating cycles between ranges of 22oC and -60oC. The maximum spectral sensitivity for water contamination was 2.4 pm/ppm-v with a resolution of < 5 ppm-v.