Luna Innovations Visits AMS for Fiber Optic Testing Under DOE SBIR Phase II Project

Earlier this month, Luna Innovations came to AMS to assist in collecting data for one of our current Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) research and development (R&D) projects.

The DOE SBIR Phase II project entitled Online Monitoring System to Support Autonomous Remote Microreactor Operations is led by AMS Senior Engineering Manager, Mr. Brent Shumaker. The project team aims to demonstrate the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to identify, diagnose, and predict sensor and/or process anomalies as well as develop an online monitoring system that can provide real-time condition assessment of microreactors and inform decision-making of the autonomous control system.

As part of this R&D project, the team designed an instrumented steel pipe component that was fabricated by Fabrisonic and installed on the AMS Flow Loop. This component houses several embedded thermocouples and fiber optic sensors as well as surface grooves to enable the installation of additional sensors.

Luna Innovations, a company that provides advanced fiber optic measurement and monitoring systems, assisted during the fabrication process to verify the embedment of the optical fibers. Representatives from Luna also came to AMS this month to assist with additional testing on the loop component. The data collected during this visit will support the next stage of this R&D project.

To learn more about the ongoing research and development projects at AMS, visit the R&D page on our website. To keep up with what’s happening at AMS, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram!