THERMAL INSTABILITY INFLUENCE OF THE RADIATION SOURCE CHARACTERISTICS ON THE SIGNAL OF FIBER-OPTIC GYROSCOPE

The paper deals with the influence of temperature instability of the radiation source on the output of the fiberoptic gyroscope (FOG) constructed under the scheme with feedback. It is known that the heating source generally leads to a change of scale factor values. The influence of the value of the central wavelength erbiumdoped broadband source on the value of the scale factor and the signal of FOG was calculated. At device rotation speed equal to 13°/h (the Earth rotation speed), the rate determination error should be dΩerr=7.2*10–5 (°/h)°K^(–1), but at a speed of 1 °/s the error will be dΩerr=1.9*10–5 (°/h)*K–1 . This result was compared with the experimental data obtained during heating source in a heat chamber at detecting the rotational speed of the Earth. In this case, the rate determination error was dΩerr=3*10^(–5) (°/h)*K–1, i.e. significantly greater than the rate calculated earlier for the scale factor. The additional experiment with the flip of a gyroscope plane on 180° showed that the detected error is associated with zero drift, not with changes in the scale factor. It is obvious that heat radiation source error in FOG indications (due to zero drift and changes in the scale factor) does not give the possibility to achieve the necessary precision FOG equal to 0.01 °/h (1σ) with even a slight change in temperature. Data obtained in this study necessitated the revision of the source and bringing into service a mechanism of thermal stabilization of its active elements.